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KN 
X 


THE wv p 
AMERICAN NATURALIST, 
: AN ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE 


OF 


NATURAL HISTORY. 


EDITED BY 


A. S. PACKARD, Jr. anp F. W. PUTNAM. 


R. H. WARD, 


ASSOCIATE EDITOR, DEPARTMENT OF MICROSCOPY. 


VOLUME VIII. 


oh SALEM, MASS. oct 15 1926 
i PEABODY ACADEMY OF SCIENAQE. “acta 


a3 


1874. Q4 RDEN Lee : 


Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by the 
PEABODY ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 


PRINTED AT 
THE SALEM PRESS, F. W. PUTNAM & CO., 
Salem, Mass. 


CONTENTS OF VOL. VIII. 


NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN Europe. By W. G. Farlow, 
M.D. pp. 1, 112, 295. 

ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE Sourn. By C.Hart Merriam. pp. 6, 
85. 


BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN Wyomina. By Dr. C. C. Parry. 
pp. 9, 102, 175, 211. 
ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA I By Dr. J. G. Cooper. p. 14. 
ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEVELOPMENT AND THE w CONDI- 
TION IN PLants. By John aioektid Hough, M.D. p. 
RAMBLES OF A BOTANIST IN WYOMING TERRITORY. By Be + L. Greene. 


pp. 
THE Piris ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND THE METHOD oF BIOLOGICAL 
TUDY. By Professor Allman. 
THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. By Theodore B. Comstock, B. S. 
5, 155 
Ox THE STRUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF THE BRONTOTHERIDE. By Prof. 
O. C. Marsh. With two plates. p. T 
THe Botany OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. By J. G. Cooper, M. D. 
90. 


p. 
Screxce IN THE UNITED StaTEs. From the French of Alphonse DeCan- 
dolle. p. 98. 
NOTES UPON AMERICAN WATER Birps. By Robert Ridgway. p. 108. 
FFERENT MODES OF TEETHING AMONG SELACHIANS. By Prof. 


Tae WILD CATTLE OF Doorin OR WHITE Forest BREED. By E. Lewis 
Sturtevant. r 135. 
EXPLORATION OF THE GULF OF MAINE WITH THE DREDGE. By A. S. Pack- 
ard, Jr. Ill bias. p. 145. 
THE GIANT CUTTLE-FISHES OF NEWFOUNDLAND AND THE COMMON SQUIDS 
oF THE New ENGLAND Coast. By Prof. A. E. Verrill. Illustrated. 


p. 167. 

Tue FLORA OF PENIKESE ISLAND. By Prof. D. S. Jordan. p. 193. 

On LOCAL VARIATIONS IN = NOTES AND NESTING HaBits or Birps. By 
Robert Ridgway. p. 

A NEW SPECIES OF bas FROM CALIFORNIA, AND NOTES ON SOME OTHER 
NORTH AMERICAN Species. By M. S. Bebb. p. 202. 

Tue Rosin. By Caroline ives: o p. 203. 

Tue NATURAL History or a POLYMORPHIC BUTTERFLY. By Samuel H. 
Scudder. p. 257. 

G 


Tue Game FALCONS OF New ENGLAND. Tue Sparrow Hawk. By Dr. 


William Wood. p. 266. 


> 


ly CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII. 


Nature’s MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS OF InsEcTs. By A. S. Pack- 
ard, Jr. Illustrated. p. 270. 
HABITS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF SwAINSON’s BUZZARD. By Dr. Elliott 
282. 


Coues. p. 
FossiL aha IN ae By Prof. O. C. Marsh. Illustrated. p. 288. 
THE PRES F CATERPILLARS BY INFLATION. By Samuel H. 


aar thi arate p- 321 

NOTES ON THE CYPRINOIDS OF ‘Cake New Jersey. By Charles C. 
Abbott, M.D. J esas 326. 

Tar MIGRATION oF Birps. By T. Martin Trippe. p. 338. 

On THE STRUCTURE AND CASTING OF THE ANTLERS OF DEER. By John 
Dean Caton, LL. D. p. 348. 

THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE RuYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. By John 
L. LeConte, M.D. p. 385. Concluded p. 
OBSERVATIONS ON DROSERA FILIFORMIS. By William M. Canby. p. 396. 
A KEY To THE HIGHER ALG OF THE ATLANTIC COAST, BETWEEN NEW- 
FOUNDLAND AND FLORIDA. By Prof. D. S. Jordan. pp. 398, 479. 
HUMAN REMAINS IN THE SHAELL-HEAPS OF THE on gril River, EAST 
FLORIDA. CANNIBALISM. By Prof. J. Wyma 3. 

THE HISTORY OF THE LOBSTER. By A. S. eked, ne With plate and 
cut. p. 414. 

NOTES ON THE FLORA OF SOUTHERN FLORIDA. By Frederick Brendel. 
p. 449. 

HERBARIUM Cases. By Dr. C. C. Parry. With cut. p. 471. 

CHARLES ROBERT Darwin. By Prof. Asa Gray. p. 473. 

THE AGRICULTURAL ANT. By Dr. G. Lincecum. p. 513. 

AZALEA VISCOSA, A FLYCATCHER. By W. W. ze p. 517. 

On. THE ANTENNZ IN THE LEPIDOPTERA. By A. R. Grote, A.M. p.519 

THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE LOWER ANIMALS. = Prof, P, d. Van pie 


ON THE DISTRIBUTION AND PRIMITIVE NUMBER OF SPIRACLES IN INSECTS. 


By A. S. Packard, Jr. p. 531. 
GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN NorTH AMERICAN Birps. By J. A. Allen. 
p. 534. 
THE SUPPOSED AupITORY APPARATUS OF THE Mos- 
QUITO. a Bot A. M. Mayer. - Illustrated. p. is E 
GOSSAMER SPIDER. By Dr. G. Lincecum. p. 5 


. ON THE NESTING OF CERTAIN Hawks, ETC. By Dr. pine Coues, U.S.A. 


596. 
THE AE aA oF Fries. I,II, I. By Dr. August Weissmann. 


pp. 603, 661, 713. 
ADDREss OF PROF. JOSEPH LOVERING. pp. 612, 641. 


ATIVE 
ON THE COTTON WORM OF THE SOUTHERN STATES (dae pe S Hiib.). 


By Aug. R. piven p. 722. 


Lire HISTORIES OF THE Protozoa. By A. S. Packard, Jr. Illustrated. 
' p 728. 


CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII. A 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


The Systematic Position of the nL DELI ba llustrated) p. 48. North 
American Grasshoppers, p. 53. ritish Ma eaweeds, p. 54. Lub- 
bock’s Monograph of the Podure, p. 54. Kowd erman Botanical Manuals, 


$ . The Zoologi 
cal Record for 1871, p. 180. n of the Echini, p. 215. Hayden’s 
Geology of the Territories P R p. 216. Girard’s Insects, p. 221. 
Solar Physics, p. 222. The Birth of Chemistry, p. 222. North American 
Moths, p. 223. Surveys west of the 100th Meridian, p. 302. Check List 
of Coleoptera, p. 303. Dictionary of Elevations of the United States, p. 
303 lo oun 


of Colorado, p. 3 Young’s Physical Geography, p. 353. 
lf Hours with the Microscope, p. 354. Field Ornithology, p. 418. The 
Butterflies of North Americ . De loridan Polyzoa, p. 421. 


of North American Noctuid Moths, p. 421. The United States Fish Com- 
mission Report (Illustrated), p. 493. North American Flies, p. 497. 
The Unicellular Nature of the Tifis, p. 498. Siebold’s Anatomy of 
the Invertebrates, p. 499. Recent Publications on Ornithology, p. 541. 
es f North American Birds, p. 546. The Principles of Science, p. 
628: S mon’s Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast and Amer- 
ican Whale-fishery, p. 632. The Geology of the Lower Amazonas (Illus- 
trated), p. 673. The original Distinction of the Testicle and Ovary, p. 680. 
Maps of Wheeler’s Expedition, 683. Physiology of the Circulation, 
p. 684. Bulletin of the Cornell areni p. 684. Manual of Metal- 
lurgy, p. 684. Introduction to General Biology, p. 749. Publications of 
Wheeler’s Survey, p. 749. The Geological Survey of Indiana, p. 749. 


BOTANY. 


Irritability of the Leaves of the Sundew, p. 55. Were the Fruits Made 
for Man, or Did Man piegi the Fruits? p. 116. The Fertilization of Gen- 
tians by Humble Bees, pp. 180, 226. ea me p.181. Investigations 
respecting the mel EAEN a Abutilon, p. 2 Abnormal Form o. 
sorus acrostichoides, p. 304. Rumex arakan ja p. 305. The Northern- 
most flowering Plants, p. 305. Thesmall-flowered seg in Michigan, 
p. 305. The Fresh-water Alge of North America, p. Aplectrum 
hyemale again, p. 307. Devlopment of Ferns wilteek eae p- 
807. Lobelia syphilitic v. alba, p. 307. Sex in Plants, p. 355. A New 
Ribes, p. 358. Periodic Motions of Leaves and Petals, p. 359. Ascent of 
Sap in the Bark of Trees, p. 360. Botrychium lunaria Swartz, in Michi- 
gan, p. 360. Absorption of Ammonia by the aérial parts of Plants, p. 360. 
Geographical Distribution of the Cupulifere, p. 422. oom on the Influ- 
ence of Light on the Development of Plants, p. 425. r. Beardslee, p. 
499. Double Thalictrum, p. 499. Dr. W. G. Farlow, a go Distribu- 
tion of Alpine Plants, p. 552.. Amount of Water contained in the differ- 
ent parts of a Plant, p. 553. Botany of Wilkes’ South Pacifc Exploring 


vi CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII. 


Expedition, p. 635. Influence of Forests on the Rainfall, p. 635. Insec- 
tivorous Plants, p. 684. istribution of American Woodlands, p. 687. 
Adoxa Moschatellina L., in Iowa, p. 690. Dispersion of Seeds by shoot- 
ing them off, p. 690. Botrychium lunaria Swartz, p. 691. Yucca filamen- 
tosa, p. 749. The Distinctive Features of Apple Flowers, p. 752. 


ZOOLOGY. 


A New Mgerian Maple Borer, p. 57. $ Spinous Fin i re a pangs p. 58. 
Capture of a Gigantic Squid at pence p- 120. w (?) Ægerian 
Maple Borer, p. 123. e Anatomy of Worms, E 12t. Doi in 
Missouri, p. 181. A New North praa Bird, p. Economic Ento- 

mology, p. 189. Gigantic Cuttle- ocg 2s of laes p. 226. Laws 
of Geographical Variation in North American Mammals and Birds, p 
227. The Habits of Polistes and eee ; p. 229. Notes on the Plant 
Lice, p. 221. A Straggler in the Ohio, p. 233. Assembling among Moths, 
p. 234. Organs of Hearing in Insects, p. 236. Change of Habit, p. 237. 
Spontaneous Gencration, p. 238. Discovery of the Water Thrush’s Nest 
in New England, p. 238. Two rare Owls from Arizona, p. 239. Avifauna 
of Colorado and Wyoming, p. 240. The Olive-sided Flycatcher, p. 240. 
A remarkable Peculiarity of DURIN urophasianus, p. 240. Ona 
Hummingbird new to our Fauna, p. 2 ccurrence of Telea Polyphe- 
mus in California.— A Correction, p. en Identity of our Hydra with 
European Species,,p. 244. Olive-sided Flycatcher, pp. 308, 309. Pet 


New Jersey, p. 364. The Honey-ants, p. 365. Spizella Breweri (?) in 
Massachusetts, p. 366. The Chimney aie. Change i in Place of Nesting, 
p. 867. The Myriopod Cermatia poisonous, p. 368. Blind Crustacea, p. 
368. Birds and Caterpillars, p. 368. A bs Hina Helix albolabris, p. 368. 
Note on esti d Insects in Collec s, p. 869. The Structure of 
Sponges, p. 425. ckel’s Embryonal 48 Abestia form of all Animals, 
p. 426. apitar ad Life of the Arctic Ocean, p. 42 w 
External Ovaries, p. 427. A Eras Beetle Pariato of the Beaver 
(with cut), p. 427. Tornaria not a larval Starfish, but the Young of a ` 
orm, p.429. The White-necked bic »p. 429. R elation of the Celen- 
terates and Echinoderms, p. 430. New Carboniferous Myriopods from 
Nova Scotia, p. 430. The Discovery of the Origin of the Sting of the 
Bee, p. 431. Deep Sea Dredgings in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, p. 481. 
The Mouth Parts of the Dragon Fly, p. 432. A New Type of Snakes, p- 
432 otice of a Species of Tern new to the Atlantic Coast of North 


p- 43 s 
orth America, p. 434. On Some of the Evidences of Life in Great Salt 
Lake, p. 435. English Sparrows, p. 486. A New Group of Cyprinidae, p- 
436. A Horned Elotherium, p. 437. The Skunk, p. 437. The Redheaded 
Woodpecker in Maine, p. 437. Menobranchus edible, p. 488. New Crus- 
tacea of the Sikes Josephine Expedition, p. 438. Special Mode of De- 
ve of certain Batrachians, p. 438. The Paleontological History of 


CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII. vii 


Trilobites, etc., as opposed by Barrande, to the Evolution Theory, p. 439. 
e Whale Lice, p. 441. New Species of North American 


501. The “Hateful” Grasshopper in New England, p. 502. The Kinglets 
in New Jersey, p. 502. Zoology in Belgium, p. 503. Recent Researches - 
on Termites and Stingless Honey-bees, p. 553. The European House 
Sparrow, p. 556. Fish Culture in the Olden Time, p. 557. The Influence 
of the Nerves upon the as of Color of Fish and Crustacea, p. 559. 
The Cotton Worm, p. 562. Lar of Anopthalmus and Adelops, p. 562. 
New Variety of Blue Srk t p. yo 63. Dimorphism in Gall Flies, p. 563. 
Sweet Scented Ants, p. 564. Robber Ants, p. 564. Ichneumon Parasites 
of Anthrenus Larve, p. 564. Larvæ of Membracis serving as milk cattle 
to a Bee, p. 565. e Snow Goose, p. 636. Transformations of our Moths 
(illustrated), p. 691. English Sparrows, p. 692. Monstrosities among 
Beetles, p. 693. Note on the Synonymy of Telea Polyphemus, p. 753. 
The Reversion of Thoroughbred Animals, p. 754. Deep Sea Explora- 
tions, p. 755. The Chestnut sided Warbler, p. 756. Embryology oe the 
Brachiopods, p. 756. etamorphoses of the Hair Worm, p. 757. ew 
Order of Hydrozoa, p. 757. Birds of Kansas, p. 757. Ostrich Etter ie 
p. 757. Case of a Dog nursing a Kitten, p. 758. 


GEOLOGY. 
Return of Professor uae Expedition, p. 58. The N. W. Wyoming 
Expedition, p. 12 eys in the American Miocene, p. 125. The 


Genus Peoh opor, p- 56 Remains of tad Plants in the Lower Silu- 

rian, p. 190. The great Lava-flood of the West, p. 244. Deep-sea Ex- 
plorations, p. 369. The Carboniferous Formation of South America, p- 

41. Analogy of the Tertiary Fauna of France to the Temperate Regions 
d America, p. 442. Small size of the cage in Tertiary Mammals, p. 503. 
Deep Sea Soundings, p. 504. Deep sea Temperature in the Antarctic 
Sea, p. 637. Origin of the Valley of so Rhine, p. 637. Supposed Lower 
Silurian Land Plants, p. 693. European Fossil Cetacea, p. 694. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 
The Manufacture of Pottery by the Indians (I KE p- 245. The 
rries of Rhamnus croceus as Indian Food, p. 2 A human Skeleton 
from the Diluvium, p. 370. The Pygmies of at Attics: p. 443. Trog- 
lodytes in Alaska, p. 505. Egyptian Archæology, p. 506. A true Geogra- 
phy of the Brain, p. 565. Rate of Growth in Man, p. 567. Extent of the 
Ancient Civilization of Peru, p.-637. Restoration of Indian Pottery, p. 

694. The Earthworks of Fort Ancient, p. 759. 


MICROSCOPY. 

A New Section Cutter (Illustrated), p.59. A New Form of Microtome 
(Illustrated), p. 126. Embedding Tissues for Sections, p. 191. Dissecting 
Embryos, p. 191. Holman’s Siphon Slide (Jllustrated), p. 248. Structure 


viii CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII. 


of the Potato, p. 248. Microscopic Drawing, p. 249. Air-cells in a float- 
ing Leaf, p. 250. Life of Hæmatozoa, p. 250. Finding the chemical 
Focus in a EEE p. 251. A Spherical Diaphragm, p. 252. 
Leaf Sections, p. 252. Another Erector, p. 252. Cements, p.252. Auto- 
microscopy, p. 253. Measuring the growth-rate of Plants, p. 253. A re- 
volving Amplifier, p. 253. Quieting ees p. 253. On the Structure of 
iatoms, p. 309. Unmounted Objects, p. 316. Arranging Diatomacese 
(Illustrated), p. 371. Histology, p. 373. a sachet of the Saproleg- 
iei, p. 374. Section Cutters, p. 375. Lecture Illustrations of Micro- 
scopic Objects, p. 375. ura Scales, p. 376. Lengthened Immersion 
be, p. 376. Automatic Turntable, p.376. Origin of Blood Corpuscles, 
p- 376. Substitute for the Camera lucida, p. 377. Amphipleura pellucida 
in dots, p. 443. On Circulatory Movements in Vaucheria, p. 444. Im- 
provements in Insect Mounting, p. 507. Measuring Angular Apertures, 
p. 508. Cataloguing Microscopic ie p. 509. Sand-blast Cells, p 
510. Another Microscopical Cement, p. 510. New Application of Stain- 
ing to Pathology, p. 511. New Rotating Microscope, p 567. Mounting 
Diatoms, p. 568. Blood Crystals, p. 568. Tolles’ New Immersion 1-6th, p. 
568. Spheraphides in Tea Leaves, p. 638. New Microscopical Societies, 
p. 638. dost of the Blood in Tila: p. 638. Achromatic Bull’s 
Eye ae r, p.638. Embedding Tissues, p. 639. Glycerine Mounting, 
p- eaded Silica Films, p. 696. Cell-culture in the Study of Fungi, 
p. s Handling Diatoms, p. 697. Reproduction of Desmids, p. 698. 
Angular Apertures, p. 698. A Finder for Microscopes with plain stage, 
p. 700. The Sremo Prism as a substitute for the Mirror for trans- 
mitted light, p. 700. ee tak for giving pressure to objects while dry- 
ing, p. 700. The new Type Plate, p. 701. Fixing Diatoms, p. 701. The 
Podura Scale, p. 702. itapa of the Rhizopods, p. 761. 
OTES.—Pages 62, 128, 191, my 316, 377, 445, 511, 569, 639, 702, 762. 


KS oki b Pii 64, ic 192, 256, en 384, 448, 512, 576, 704,765. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. — Page 12 


ERRATA. 

Page 58, line 10, for “ Germədius” read Genn sie Page 114, line 3 from bottom. 
for * arising ” read arriving. Page 115, for “ Thorne” read Th . Page 237, last line, 
for “I. J. Wyman” . Wyman. Pare 358, in the description of Ribes Wolfii, im- 
mediately after sp. n. insert (R. Sanguineum Pu . Vari Watson, 381 in 
King’s Report, vol. v, gi 100) and erase “3 to 6 feet high » into 2 to 4 feet high. Page 
482, after the d “c” read “ Branchlets mostly tapering to base,” omitting * oppo- 


- site and.” Page 483, line 30 from at for “g” read q. Page 485, line 16 from top, for. 
ef” read f?. Page 491, for numbers ‘150, 151, 152, 153. etc., to 194,” read Nos. 149(2), 150, 
151, 152, etc., to 198, each number having been by accident ngeses ard, thus not 

ding with the references above. Thus Ulva Lactuca should fas No. 161 in- 
stead of No. 162.’ Page — line 15 from top, ae “ slip” wey slit. 1 
from bottom, insert a comma after “century.” Page 547, 10th line from bottom, for 
“of which the latter two,” re ay of which latter two. Page 551, a line from bottom, 
for “ subi” read subis; 4th line from bottom, insert “ no” before “similar.” Page 552, 
for “J. S. Merrill” read J. C. Merrill. 


Plate. P 
1,2. Brontotherium ingens Marsh, . 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


LIST OF PLATES. 


age. 
84 


LIST OF WOOD-CUTS. 


Lingula pyramidata, . 
TT section of Lin- 


Transverse. section “of an- 
d 


Transverse section of miol: 
e 


Molluscan archet etype. 
mbryo of Lamellibranch- 


iate, 


Embry 

ancl inet pe Brachiopods, ; 3 
Foe of Lingula p 
Sophelis. a ‘collar of sini s 


Hend ors Rabells 
Longitudinal po Rae of Lin- 
Psa and A = “pre: ss 
Geaions of arm mphi- 
aoe and Lingala, 
po various shells and 
Saesouatal organs of worms, 
PES n orgona of Brach- 
dig ait organ of ‘Alciope 
at Terebratulina, . 
Section cutter, 
Deas of arm of squid, 


> gore Ea a 
E Va eg 


ealii, . . . 
Gerecnt of Loligo Pealii, > 


Turhan Geyser. ž z : 
ep es Geyser near the 


Basins of Hot Springs, : 
enopon icicola, é 


Goniodes I : 
Goniodes ‘ 


eee 6 eee ee eee 8. 


Page. 
44 


H 


me È 


6 & AAAS SSS 


Plate. Page. 
3. Early Stages of the Lobster, . 416 
No. Page. 
65. Nirmus buteonivorus, . . 220 
66. ne 1 teem E 
67. jem e Tic see = 
68. American Argas, Cee ee ee 
69-70. Indian implements, r 245 
71. TIRS slide, E ae 
72. Aphelinus of apple scale 
73. Oro chia: agilis, F 289 
74. Miohip ta annectens, 290 
75. Foo nes of Orohippus, 
recone Hipparion, & 
quus, 292 
76-77 Preservation of caterpil- 
š 322 
78. A oarous amænus, é 334 
7 Ins lapse a arranging 
Diato + 2 ee 
81. Paba of iaten. bre a 415 
82. Ap Bae trong oe os) 8 
83. Herbarium a CER 
84, Lern omy. ° Pee EI § 
85-86. Cirrhatulus grandis, . . . 494 
87. Clymen eaters oo a y 408 
88. Euchone, . . es ae 
89. éa of com =s MO 
90. Megalops of raag crab, 495 
91. Japyx solifu 501 
92-100. Geological S aadA of the 
ee Amazonas, 
101. graig of Cælodasys unicor- 
š 691 
102. eave t TRA hi 7. 
Wo ‘aa . 691 
of Nadata gibbosa,. 691 
104-105. Larva of Notodonta,. . . 691 
106. Larva of Ce 692 
107. a rg deridens, 692 
i Cucullia speyeri 692 
«| 692 
110-125. stivation of nem - 706-709 
126. athybius Hæckelii, . . . 730 
127. Protomonas amyli, ... 7323 
128. yxa auran oo e S 
129. Vamppyrellas pirogyre, . . 735 
= oo Bane m radians, eo T 
s regarina gigantea, . . . 1738 
132. Abi OA E ee 
133. Amoeba sphærococcus, . . 744 
134. palustris, eae 
135. Collosphera spinosa,. . . 47 


ee E 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vol. VITI.— JANUARY, 1874.— No. 1. 
COEPORDOD o 
NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN 
EUROPE. 


BY W. G. FARLOW, M.D. 


PART I. SWEDEN. 


SwEDEN, and especially Upsala, is a sort of botanical Mecca, 
and, indeed, no one who has occasion to travel in the north of 
Europe would willingly refrain from visiting the tomb of Linnæus. 

‘I reached this country by way of Copenhagen, which fine city, 
as well as Hamburg I was obliged to hurry through, taking 
merely a glimpse of the Botanical and Zoological Gardens. From 
Copenhagen I crossed over to Malmoe in Sweden, and took the 
train to the old university town of Lund, where the distinguished 
algologist, Agardh, is professor, as was his father before him. ‘The 
town is, indeed, old and primitive: and-from the astonishment of 
the natives one would suppose that I was the first American ever 
seen there. Bs 

A pretty, but to me decidedly unintelligible chamber-maid 
managed after a while to understand that I wanted a room. 
Unfortunately, there was no lock to the door, and servant after 
servant entered the room without going through the ceremony of 
knocking, and inspected me and my luggage. At length, a waiter 
appeared who spoke a little German and from him I learned that 
Prof. Agardh was in the city. With a porter to carry my large 
package of algæ, I made my way to his house, before the door of 


Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by the PEABODY ACADEM 
_ SCIENCE, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, suet 
1 : 


AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VII. ql) 


2 NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 


which, and in the: entries, juniper twigs were spread, a universal 
custom in Sweden. I found the professor at home and expecting 
me. In personal appearance he is tall, and, as they say, aristo- 
cratic looking (in fact he is called “Lord Agardh” by the stu- 
dents) ; he has bright twinkling eyes and a white mustache. He 
speaks and writes English remarkably well. He is a member of 
the Reichstag, and so goes to Stockholm in the winter. His herba- 
rium, with the exception of the largest species, is in his private 
house. The larger specimens are kept at the building in the new 
botanical garden. An examination of the specimens I had 
brought was preluded by an invitation to take a glass of Cognac 
and soda-water, a favorite beverage in this region. My valise 
being unpacked, we set to work. Amongst the lot were several 
plants new to him from America, and some entirely new, particu- 
larly amongst my Oregon and California species ; but this is hardly 
a proper time to notice néw species. He seemed to be particu- 
larly interested in a specimen of Pikea Oalifornica, which plant he 
had never seen, although he had himself added other members to 


the genus. A Chordaria from Oregon, supposed by Agardh to be 


new, I have since discovered, from an examination of the Ruprecht 
collection in St. Petersburg, to be C. abietina of Ruprecht, still 
unpublished. 


The botanical department of the university is under the direc- — 


tion of Professor Agardh, assistant Professor Areschoug, nephew 


of the professor of the same name at Upsala, and Dr. Berghen, d 


privat-docent, who has more especially studied mosses and was 
associated with Professor Theo. Fries of Upsala in his Spitz- 
bergen journey. Dr. Areschoug speaks very little English, but 
delightfully slow German. Dr. Berghen speaks both English and 


German. He is going to New Zealand next year, and is to return n 


by way of California. 

The old botanical garden opposite the cathedral is now changed 
into a pleasure ground. The new garden is yet in its infancy, 
but the hot-houses are on a scale not to be seen in any American 
university. It seems strange to me that in these cold northern 


countries, among a comparatively poor people, the universities 


_are provided with gardens and hot-houses which, if they belonged 
` to most American universities, would be considered something 


Pee ay Se ae 


wonderful. In fact, except in Berlin and Munich, I have seen i 


no garden in Germany, so far as the hot-houses are concerned, 


wy 


NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 3 


equal to those at Lund. Near the entrance of the garden is a 
brick building containing a lecture room, laboratory, and herba- 
rium. In passing through the hall a most decided and congenial 
aroma of seaweed was perceived. It appears that Professor 
Agardh keeps a woman pretty constantly employed in soaking out 
and mounting rough-dried specimens. During my visit, she was 
engaged on a lot of algz sent by Dr. Ferd. Müller of Australia, 
and, as I entered the room, she was fishing up a specimen of Pha- 
celocarpus Labillardieri. In this building are kept large specimens 
of Ecklonia, Macrocystis, Durvillea, etc., several feet long, 
mounted on very thick card-board. That is certainly the only 
way of getting any idea how such plants really look. 

Lund lies in the large plain of Sarnia, with mountains visible in 
the distance. This is decidedly the most fertile part of Sweden, 
and the grain crop is very large. I made an excursion with Dr. 
Berghen to a place called Vogelsang, made classic by the visits 
of Linnæus. The meadows and knolls were very beautiful with 
centaurez and orchids, and farther off one could see the grain 
fields brilliant with the usual amount of poppies, chrysanthemums, 
and bachelor’s buttons, the characteristic “ corn-weeds” of Europe. 

From Lund to Stockholm is a rather long journey, particularly 
if one has lately been travelling in Germany. The botanists of 
Stockholm were all away for the vacation. So, after visiting the 
museum and galleries, which, although good, are not remarkable, 
and enjoying for a day or two this picturesque and agreeable city 
and its surroundings, I went on to Upsala, in the slowest train I 
ever saw. Upsala is not: so beautifully situated, but is in most 
respects more interesting than Lund. The number of students is 
fifteen hundred, three times as great as at Lund. Many of the 
students are poor and are obliged to spend the vacations in 
Upsala, only returning home at the completion of their studies. 
They are divided according to the nations or provinces of Sweden, 
each of which has a club house, that of the Stockholm-nation 
being the finest. Each nation has also a lot and monument in the 
cemetery, and most of the students who die at Upsala are buried 
there, as it is a long journey to some of the provinces. In fact, 
Americans who judge of European distances from Great Britain 
and Germany are astonished at the size of N orway and Sweden. 
Professor Schibler of Christiania told me that it was half as far 


4 NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 


from Christiania to thé northernmost point of Norway as from 
Christiania to Rome. 

On my arrival I called at once on the venerable Professor Fries. 
I found him at home, surrounded by his children and grand- 
children, assembled to celebrate his seventy-eighth birthday. Only 
one of his family was absent, a son who lives in Florida. He 
welcomed me warmly, and regretted that he was too feeble to show 
me Upsala. He spoke German, but so slowly that it was difficult 
to follow him. His daughters spoke English; the youngest, who 
is unmarried, very well. He wears the traditional long black coat 
and skull-cap, and has the venerable appearance and benign ex- 
pression, which is shown in the photograph of himself and the 
amiable Madame Fries, which I remember in Professor Gray’s 
collection. Professor Fries directed me to the college building 
where his son resides, and told me that he would be glad to act as 
my escort in Upsala. The way to the laboratory was through 


very classic grounds. Just back of the castle is the Library, Car- r 


olina Rediviva, with an avenue to the right leading to the Obelisk 
and the Cathedral. Here are some fine trees, and it has been the 


favorite walk of many distinguished professors. Back of the i 
library is a large grove with a cemetery in which are buried Wahl- 
enberg and Thunberg. In the grove and cemetery are a number 
of Runic monuments, and through the centre of the grove runs a 
broad avenue to the laboratory, in the second story of which sev- — 


eral of the professors have suites of rooms. Not finding Professor 
Fries at home I called again the next morning. 


The younger Professor Theodore Fries, stout and robust, and 


not the least like his father in personal appearance, kindly offered 


to be my guide in the city. The situation of Upsala is bleak and — 
even dismal, a single hill on which stands the cathedral, castle 
and university buildings, in the midst of a wide plain. The 


cathedral, an ancient brick structure, has no great claims to 


beauty, but is chiefly interesting on account of the tombs and 
relics contained in it. The tomb of Gustav Vasa is the lion of 3 
the place, but to all naturalists the tomb of Linnæus, of black — 
marble with a medallion, is the chief attraction. The design is 
simple, and in striking contrast to the elaborate sculptures sacred 
to the memory of some very noble but now completely forgotten 
individuals. In front of the cathedral is a promenade respected % 


* 


co 


ST ee et ae Se Sot 


NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 5 


by the inhabitants as the favorite resort of the professors. The 
promenade ends at the library, the first of the university buildings, 
back of which, and separated from it by a grove in which are 
stones with curious Runic inscriptions, is a large building con- 
taining the university laboratories. Close by is the Botanical 
Garden, where strangers are shown Linnzus’s myrtle, which is still 
kept alive for the purpose of supplying travellers with relics. In 
this way the more valuable mementoes of Linnzeus are preserved 
from the ravages of curiosity hunters. In the hall of the herba- 
rium building is a marble statue of the father of botany, in a 
sitting posture, by Byström. The expression of the face is ex- 
tremely beautiful, but unfortunately not very much like Linneus, . 
if we are to trust the portrait at Stockholm, which was considered 
an excellent likeness. Professor Areschoug, best known by his 
algological writings, resides close to the garden. He is a rather 
short, thick-set man, and in his method of study is decidedly Ger- 
man. is collection of microscopic preparations of alge is large, 
and the preparations are beautifully mounted. 
_ Linneus’ city house, at the old Botanic Garden, is still to be 
seen, nearly unaltered, but it contains no relics of its distinguished 
owner. There are some, however, at his country house at Ham- 
marby, five miles from town, and in the little building near it which 
contained his herbarium and museum. A good idea of these and 
of all the souvenirs of Linnzus is to be had from a series of fif- 
teen small photographs, with an accompanying sheet of letter 
press, which were published a few years ago, and are still on sale. 
The collection was advertised at the time in most of the botanical 
journals, is not expensive, and could readily be obtained, I pre- 
sume, by those who would be interested in these memorials. A 
visit to Upsala is incomplete without an excursion to the tombs of 
Thor, Frei and Odin, three mounds a short distance from the 
town. To make the scene more impressive, the Swedish urchins 
roll over and over down the mounds for a slight gratuity. Ata 
restaurant near by, one is also expected to drink mead out of 
horns mounted with silver and inscribed with the names of princes 
and nobles who drank heavily from them in days of yore. 


ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE SOUTH. 


BY C. HARTE MERRIAM. 


I. SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Tue town of Aiken is situated in the dry, sandy ‘“‘ Pine Barrens” 
of southern South Carolina. It is a great resort for invalids (es- 
pecially for those suffering from pulmonary diseases), the climate 
being dry and healthful. It is the highest point on the Charles- 
ton railroad, having an altitude of over six hundred feet, and there 
are no streams or swamps in the vicinity. ‘There is no water near 
excepting an exceedingly small stream which flows into a little 
pond two miles distant, the outlet of which empties into several 
larger ponds between Graniteville and Langley, five and eight 
miles west of the town. 

~The woods, which consist mainly of pine trees, abound with 
bright green lizards (Anolius Carolinensis), which, like the cha- 
meleon, possess the power of changing their color to a greenish- 
yellow and a dark reddish-brown.. There is also another species 
of lizard (Scleroporus undulatus), which somewhat resembles the 
“ horned toad” of our western plains; it is longer, however, and 
more slender and its throat and the sides of its belly are of a bright 
metallic greenish-blue color. Both of these species run about on 
old logs and rail fences and seem to take especial delight in climb- 
ing among the fragrant jessamines (Gelsemium sempervirens), 
which are very abundant in some parts of the woods. When dis- 


turbed they generally take to some tree, which they climb with — 


astonishing rapidity; the back of the latter species so closely 
resembles the bark as to be scarcely distinguishable from it. 

To the entomologist, Aiken may prove a more fruitful locality 
than to the ornithologist, since there are many bright colored and 


beautiful species of butterflies; but even these lose their attrac- 


tions when compared with the endless varieties and curiously 
_ formed species of Coleoptera. One species of the latter in partic- 
ular (Phaneus carnifex) reminds us of the Brazilian beetles ; it is 
about three-quarters of an inch long, is of the brightest green color, 
_ and has a large reddish violet shield on the fore part of its back, 
cane ic which grows an immense horn that hangs over the back. 


a A Bae a 


iio ne ea ee 


ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE SOUTH. 7 


Now, after having given the readers of the NATURALIST a gen- 
eral idea of the locality, I will proceed to consider my more par- 
ticular friends, the birds. 

Arriving at Aiken on the 14th of March, I commenced collecting 
on the same day, and remained there three weeks, during which 
time one hundred and fifty-three specimens were prepared. Owing 
to the unusual tardiness of the season, many, and in fact most, of 
the spring birds had not arrived up to the time of leaving. About 
the 14th of March, I found the yellow-rumped warbler (Dendreca 
coronata) very abundant: on the 17th the pine-creeping warbler 
(D. pinus) first made its appearance, after which time it was quite 
common ; it was very appropriately named the pine-creeping war- 
bler, as I never, except on one occasion, saw it alight, even for an 
instant, on anything but a pine tree; here it would sit by the hour 
and warble out its sweet song. On the 21st, I heard a delicate 
chirp above my head, and, looking up, saw a small bird on the 
top of one of the tallest pine trees; it was too high to be recog- 
nized, so I shot it, and found to my great delight that it was the 
yellow-throated warbler (D. Dominica). The black and white 
creeper (Mniotilta varia) was seen on the 18th, from which time 
afterwards it was common. A few Maryland yellow-throats (Geo- 
eae trichas) arrived on the 31st, but were not numerous. The 
hermit thrush ( Turdus Pallasii) and the robin (Planesticus migra- 
oe were quite plentiful when I arrived. Mocking birds ( Mi- 
mus polyglottus) did not become numerous until about the 25th, 
after which time they “ fairly filled the air with their rich medley 
of inexhaustibly varied notes, the singers’ leaping in restless 
ecstasy from branch to branch, with drooping wings and spread 
tail, or flitting from thicket to thicket as they sang.” I observed 
but one eat-bird (Galeoscoptes Carolinensis) and that was on the 
4th of April; the brown thrush or long-tailed thrasher (Harpo- 
rhynchus rufus) was very common on and after March 19th. 

I shot a pewee or pheebe bird (Sayornis fuscus) on the 15th, 
after which time they were often seen. Our common kingbird, or 
beebird (Tyrannus Carolinensis) arrived on the 4th of April, 
when it immediately commenced its usual noisy abuse of all the 
other species, both large and small, especially the former. On 
the 22d, I shot one blue-headed vireo ( Vireo solitarius), which was 
the only one seen; the white-eyed vireo ( V. Noveboracensis), how- 
ever, was quite common on and after the 27th. The great Carolina 


Sm. 


8 3 ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE SOUTH. 


wren (Thryothorus Ludovicianus), though a resident, was first ob- 
` served about the 27th, after which time its pleasant song was often 
heard. The blue-gray gnatcatchers (Polioptila coerulea) arrived 
on the 21st, and soon became very common; the ruby-crowned 
kinglets (Regulus calendula) appeared on the same day, and were 
equally numerous. Rough-winged swallows (Stelgidopteryx serri- 


pennis), in large numbers, arrived about the 22d. Hawks of all ` 


kinds were rare; one fish hawk (Pandion Carolinensis) was ob- 
served at Langley’s Pond eight miles below here, and occasionally 
a Buteo was seen sailing above Aiken, but too high for the spe- 
cies to be determined. Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) were quite plenti- 
ful and were probably resident ; they commenced nesting about the 
Ist of April, as did the blue jays and Carolina chickadees. I shot 
one loggerhead shrike (Collurio Ludovicianus) ; this species was 
quite rare. The common yellow bird (Chrysomitris tristis) was 
occasionally met with, and the pine finch (O. pinus) was very 
abundant. Chipping sparrows (Spizella socialis) were very plenti- 
ful, as were the field sparrows (S. pusilla), song sparrows ( Melo- 


spiza melodia), white-throated sparrows ‘Zomcivighia albicollis), 


lack or common snowbirds (Junco hyemalis), and the sagittis 
bunting (Pooecetes gramineus). 
The following is a list of the birds observed at Aiken, South 
Carolina, between March 14th and April dth, 1873. — 
Turdus Pallasii Cab. (Hermit Thrush), abundant. pas e procured. 
Planesticus migra: tona a rani (Co ommon Robin), ¢ 


S poly g Bird), arrived koas March on common. 1 spn. 
aleoscoptes Cc arolinensis Baird ( (Cat Bird), arrd. April 4, r 
BA sialis Baird (Binebird), ; abundant. 268 spns. 


Mar. 21st, ae 6 spns. 
Polioptila cærulea Sclat. (Blue-gray Gnatcatcher) stig March 2ist 4spns. 


ry numerous. 
Parus Carolinensis Aud. (Carolina Chicka adee), common. 4spn 
Sitta Car Carolinensis Gm elin (White-bellied a "a raok. 2 spns. 
la Lath ei 


- Sitta 


\ 


Certhia A ica o ó ns 

Thryothorus Ludovicianus bth (Gt. Carolina fits ic common. 2spns. 

Geothlypis trichas Cab. (Maryland Yellow-throat), not common. om spn. 
ndreeca coronata Gray (Yellow-rumped Warbler), very com: 


8 spns. 
Dendræca pinus Baird an Warbler), arrd. March Pa common, 18 spns. 


TIE PE] r 


v-throated Warbl ler), — arg she d spn. 
ugh com 


i 
> 


ST RM Te OS ea eS eee” ee ONSET Le a ee ee, eT, i 


Fies 0 Noveboracensis Bonap. (White-eyed o> arrd. March 27, very common. 3 


Vireo ‘tices Vieill. (Blue-headed Vireo), arra. March 22, rare. 1spn. 
Collurio Lu dovicianus Bair wa (Loggerhead ), rare. pn 
Chrysomitris tristis Bonap. eres not common. 2 spns, 


BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 9 


Chrysomitris pinus Bonap. (Pine Finch), very abundant. 9 spns. 
Boe een |, rcammesea coy ss ay-winges Fine aia ponm on. 38 
rrow), datik 6 spns. 


Junco hyemalis Sclat. sc ela common. 28 
Spizella pusilla Bonap. (Field Sparrow), comm N spns. 
ap tai Bonap. (Chipping Sparrow), common. 2 spns. 
Melospiza m Baird (Song Sparrow i cme: 2 spns. 
Melospiza oa s Baird ( ather common. 1 spn. 
Cardinalis Virginianus Bonap. (Redbird), common. 6 — 
Pipilo erythrophthalmus Vieill. (Chewink), common. teni 
Agelæus phæniceus Vieill. (Red- ar ms ape not common. 1 spn. 
ae magna Sw. (Meadow Lark), n 

can 


cristata Sw. (Blue Jay), comm 4p 
Cory gesi ifr agus Mig (Fish Crow), cake 
T is Baird (King cua cat April 4, common. 1spn. 3 


n A 
ornis 1s fundies Baird serii com 
o 


Picus villosus Linn iry Cker), ra 
Pi alis Vieill. (Red-cockaded Woodpecker), rare. 
Sphyropicus varius Baird (Yellow-bellied Woodpecker), common. 4 spns. 
Melanerpes erythrocephalus Sw. (Yellow-bellied Woodpec pe ads aay common. 1 spn. 
S —— Sse Miden iar common. 2spns. 
Pigeon Hawk), rare. 1 spn. 
Tinnunculus sparverius Vieill. g eias sates not common. 1 spn. 
Cathartes aura Illig. (Turkey Buzzard), common. 1 spn. 
Cat tus Lesson (Black Vulture), not co 
Zenzdura Carolinensis Bonap. (Comt Dove), common. 2 spns. 
Ortyx Virginianus Bonap. (Common Quail), abundant 
des virescens Bonap. (Green Heron), not on. lspn. 
Ægialitis vociferus Cassin (Kildeer), not common. 
Philohela minor Gray (American Wi ) rare. 
lari 5; not common 


BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 


BY DR. C. C. PARRY. 


i No. 1. 

Havine been connected with the exploring expedition of Captain 
W. A. Jones into Northwestern Wyoming during the past season 
(1873), the botanical results have proved of such unexpected in- 
terest that I have obtained the permission of Captain Jones to 
anticipate the more detailed official report by preparing for imme- 
diate publication a brief sketch of the general botanical features 
of the region passed over, with notices of rare plants and descrip- 
tions of new species collected on the route. 

Fort Bripcer To Camp Brown. Leaving the point of rendez- 
vous at Fort Bridger on the 12th of June, our route followed a 


~ 


10 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 


northeasterly course over Green River basin, thence skirting along 
the southern spurs of the Wind River range. The main conti- 
nental divide was crossed at South Pass. From this point fol- 
lowing a more direct northerly course we reached Camp Brown 
in the Wind River valley on July Ist. 

The chief botanical interest on this portion of our route was 
comprised in the many suggestive associations with the early dis- 
coveries of Nuttall nearly forty years previous. Though this 
route has been repeatedly traversed by exploring parties, lying 
in fact on the well-beaten track of western emigrant travel pre- 
vious to the construction of the Pacific Railroad, not a few of the 
plants then collected and described have remained up to this 
time desiderata in herbaria. 

Unusually copious spring rains previous to our journey had 
freshened the vegetation of these usually arid tracts, so that our 
necessarily slow and tedious marches, encumbered by a heavily 
laden wagon train, were enlivened (at least to the botanist) by 
unwonted verdure. Even the repulsive “ sage plains” and “ grease 
wood” flats, so monotonous and forbidding to the ordinary trav- 
eller, yielded up unexpected treasures of rare plants. Among 
these the evanescent annuals were in great profusion, including 
Cleome aurea Hook., Calyptridium roseum S. Watson, GZnothera 


Andina Nutt., @nothera scapoidea Nutt., Astragalus Geyeri Gray, 
Astragalus pictus Gray, Chenactis Douglasii H. & A., Plantago — 
Patagonica Jacq., Gilia inconspicua Dougl., and Oxytheca dendro- 
idea Nutt. In the moist grassy valley of Little Sandy were also 


found quite abundantly Capsella divaricata Walp. and Gentiana 
humilis Stev., heretofore overlooked by collectors in this region. 


Of perennial plants, serving somewhat to relieve the prevalent 
and monotonous growth of Artemisia, Tetradymia and Linosyris, ~ 
_ comprising what is popularly known as “wild sage,” and the 
equally forbidding .Chenopodiaceous shrubs confounded under the a 
common term of “ grease-wood,” may be noted several species of — 
~~ including A. Purshii Dougl., A. lotiflorus Hook, A» 
glareosus Dougl., A. junceus Nutt., and now collected for the first , 


time since Nuttall’s original discovery, A. pubentissimus Nutt. 


and A. flavus Nutt., the former a not uncommon roadside plant, | 


and the latter quite abundant along the margins of dry water- 
courses, at the foot of steep clay buttes. 
™ m knolls adjoining Green River still another i inter- 


BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. TL 


-e Nuttallian plant was rediscovered, Tanacetum Nuttallii 
Torr. & Gray, and growing in close proximity with this was 
found Vesicaria Alpina Nutt., both probably near the original 
station of Nuttall. 

Nearly everywhere over this district in exposed situations we 
meet with Eriogonum ovalifolium Nutt., forming dense silvery 
cushions, its close globular heads of flowers exhibiting-a great 
variety of tints from pure white to dark brown. Almost equally 
abundant on gravelly slopes also occur Aplopappus acaulis Gray, 
and Astragalus simplicifolius. Gray, presenting a neat contrast 
of colors in their bright yellow and blue flowers, resting in mats of 
dark green and silvery foliage. 

Quite constantly associated in growth with Astragalus flavus 
Nutt. is a showy asteroid plant with large white flowers, disposed 
in flattened summits surmounting the dull colored tomentose leaves. 
This plant, according to Dr. Gray, is closely allied to or perhaps 
identical with the Xylorhiza villosa Nutt. (Aster Xylorhiza Torr. 
& Gray). In view of the discrepancy in many respects between 


this plant and that described by Nuttall, Dr. Gray has thought - 


proper to characterize it as a new species, Aster Parryi. 

Among other plants worthy of note in this district may be 
enumerated Delphinium Menziesii DC., Sisymbrium junceum 
Bieb., Viola Nuttallii Pursh, Cymopterus montanus Nutt., Cym- 
opterus Fendleri Gray, Antennaria dimorpha Nutt., Artemisia 
pedatifida Nutt., Phlox longifolia Nutt., Phlox canescens Torr. & 
Gray, Castilleia parviflora Bong. o Pentstemon humilis Nutt., and 
Gilia pungens Benth. 

On reaching the higher ground forming the eastern rim of the 
Green River basin, which leads by an easy pass, at an average ele- 
vation of seven thousand feet above the sea level, from the Pacific 
to the Atlantic slope, the prevalent desert growth gives place to 
-a vegetation partaking of a sub-alpine character. This district 
comprises the botanical localities designated by Nuttall as “ dry 
and lofty hills in the central range of the Rocky Mountains.” 

Here accordingly we again come within the range of these early 
discoveries in re-collecting such choice plants as Draba Alpina L., 
var. densifolia, Lepidium montanum Nutt., Trifolium Andinum 
Nutt., Trifolium gymnocarpon Nutt., Astragalus campestris Gray, 

Oxytropis lagopus Nutt., and Phlox bryoides Nutt. 
Here also we meet for the first time, probably near its south- 
eastern limits, the interesting Lewisia rediviva Pursh. This 


- 


collect their summer tribute of melted snow, and cleave their way 


senting smooth tabled summits, bedded with rich grasses inter- 
the close similarity of their flowers being curiously contrasted 


are irregularly gashed to resemble forms of the other. Besides 


wa of this renege Gronia Fremontii Torr., Arenaria 


12 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 


becomes much more abundant farther north in the Wind River 
valley, and we were thus afforded an opportunity to observe this 
plant through its flowering and fruiting stages, extending from 
the latter part of June to the middle of July. After this latter 
period its matured capsules are detached and blown away, leaving 
no trace of the plant exposed to view, till the following spring 
develops the rosette of radical leaves, by which the Indians are 
guided in procuring their supplies of this palatable and nutritious 
root. Recent attempts have been made to introduce this showy 
plant into our gardens, where it would prove quite an acquisition. 

rubbery is here represented mainly by Rosacece, including 
Amelanchier Canadensis Torr. & Gray, Potentilla fruticosa L., 
Purshii tridentata DC., Ribes cereum Dougl., but we look in vain, 
in apparently favorable localities, for the forms so well known in 
the mountain range farther south in Colorado of Ribes deliciosus 
Torr., Cercocarpus parvifolius Nutt., or Jamesia Americana Torr. 
& Gray. 

The scanty pine growth includes chiefly Pinus flexilis James, 
with an occasional Song of Abies Douglasii Lindl., and Juniperus 
Virginiana L. 

The southeastern spurs of the Wind River range present a sut- 
cession of steep, grassy slopes agreeably interspersed with pine- 
clad ridges. Through numberless channels the mountain streams 


to the lower valleys through deep gorges, disclosing in steep mural 
faces the structure and succession of the underlying, highly in- 
clined, rocky strata. The lower undulating slopes, forming the 
natural divides between the numerous watercourses tributary to 
the main valley of Wind River, form irregular ridges often pre- 


spersed with gaily colored flowers. Conspicuous among the latter 
are the bright golden-yellow heads of Balsamorhiza Hookeri 
Nutt., and Balsamorhiza sagittata Nutt., growing promiscuousl, 


with their diverse foliage ; even in the latter case, however, a ten- 
dency to assimilate (perhaps due to hybridization) is occasionally 
observed, in which the sharply hastate leaves of the latter species 


> everywhere obtrusive forms, we may also note as chara 


BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 13 


tropis campestris L., Lupinus sericeus Pursh, Hedysarum Mack- 
enzii Rich., Eriogonum flavum Nutt., and Calochortus Gunnisoni 
Watson. On all the high rocky ridges of this section a charming 
variety of Phlox Douglasii Hook. is met with, forming close, flat- 
tened cushions, and a profusion of pure porcelain-white fragrant 
flowers. 

Along the borders of streams, with the prevalent willow growth, 
we find Betula occidentalis Hook., Alnus incana Willd., and in the 
larger valleys Eleagnus argenteus Nutt. 

On the steeper mountain slopes, before alluded to as presenting 
an agreeable alternation of meadow and woodland, the smooth 
grassy expanses of the higher elevations, reaching an altitude of 
nine thousand feet above the sea level, reveal a distinctly subal- 
pine vegetation. We accordingly here encounter such well known 
forms as Saxifraga nivalis L., Eritrichium aretioides DC., Pole- 
monium confertum Gray, Lloydia serotina Reich., while appar- 
ently more distinctly characteristic of this particalas range we 
note Townsendia spathulata Nutt., Townsendia scapigera D. C. 
Eaton and Bupleurum ranunculoides L. 

In the wooded districts Pinus flexilis is irregularly mingled with 
Pinus ponderosa and Abies Douglasii, while Pinus contorta forms 

the almost exclusive growth of the interior ridges and alpine 
leys. After passing the first series of steep ridges, which gen- 
-erally present an abrupt escarpment towards the main axis of the 
range, the interior valleys are spread out in the form of irregular 
basins, bordered by deep pine woods. Within these timbered 
recesses we occasionally encounter small grassy parks, or alpine 
bogs occupied by a close, clumpy growth of willows. Through 
these, course clear mountain streams generally hidden from view 
by overhanging vegetation. During the season of melting snow 
in the early summer months, these meadows frequently conceal 
treacherous bogs greatly impeding travel, while small ponds and 
occasional permanent lakes are not infrequent. In this variety of 
surface exposure, limited in every direction by irregular, rocky 
ridges, variously set off with extensive snow drifts, we have all 
the conditions of a most attractive mountain flora 

We accordingly find here in somewhat catia association the 
following plants :— Draba Alpina L., Lupinus cespitosus Nutt., 
Hedysarum boreale Nutt., Astragalus Alpinus L., Oxytropis cam- 
pestris L., Oxytropis viscida Nutt.? (or a species near it), Sedum 
stenopetalum Ph., Sedum rhodanthum Gray, Actinella grandiflora 


` 


` glauca L., Synthyris plantaginea Benth., Mertensia paniculata 


_ that the animals, like the plants, are comparatively few in species, 
and mostly of northern forms. It is possible that, somewhat later, 


- insects, but I was then so near the end of the spring migration, 


even in early spring and in an average rainy year like the past. 


dians who live at these loca 


pa i ot 


14 ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 


T. & G., Antennaria dioica L., Senecio lugens Rich., Kalmia 


Dougl., Gilia nudicaulis Gray, Androsace septentrionalis L., Prim- 
ula Parryi Gray, Gentiana humilis Stev., Phacelia sericea Gray. 

In succeeding articles the flora of the Owl Creek range and of 
the high mountain district between the Big-Horn and Yellowstone 
basins will be noticed. 


ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 


BY DR. J. G. COOPER. 


Wuen collecting at San Diego Bay in the spring of 1862, I much 
regretted that the severe floods of that noted season so broke up 
the roads into the mountains, that I could not get up to them with 
the necessary materials for making a full collection of the animals 
and plants. I then supposed that the greater moisture and large 
forests of the mountains would favor the existence of numerous — 
species as yet uncollected within the Union, if not entirely new. a 
I was disappointed in not finding more of them near the coast, and 7 
attributed their absence to the barrenness of the country, and want ; 
of trees, essential to many species. I supposed also that some of — 
the Mexican or Lower Californian species said to be found near — 
the boundary must exist there. - 

My late trip through the mountains, has, however, satisfied me 


agglers from Lower California might appear among birds and 


in this latitude, that no common visitors are likely to have escaped 
notice. — As to the non-migratory animals, they have evidently been 
endered very scarce by the want of water over most of the range, 


Those that drink could find water in the fall only at intervals of — 
ten to twenty miles, where es must fall an easy prey to the ~ 7 


The n reptiles, insects an ‘and mollusea, are however less | 


TRE os mals, as the former can obtain 


ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 15 


enough from rain and fogs, while the lower classes frequently 
remain torpid during unusual droughts.* 

The mammals seen were very few. The grizzly bear (or perhaps 
a different species called the cinnamon bear) is said to occur 
rarely. The skunks, the most frequently noticed of the small 
carnivora, did not make their presence known, and I heard ten 
years ago, that the dry seasons preceding had nearly exterminated 
them in the low country. The other small carnivora are still more 
scarce, their usual prey, the Rodentia, having disappeared. 

Wild cats are not rare about the highest peaks, and a skin I saw 
was only a young of the common Lynx rufus, var. maculatus. I 
heard formerly of long-tailed spotted cats being found in these 
southern ranges, but if the Felis eyra or Felis onza have ever 
reached them by crossing the deserts eastward, they have become 
now exceedingly scarce, through starvation or from being hunted. 
Cayotés (Canis latrans) are scarce, and I heard nothing of foxes. 

Of Rodents, the almost universal Spermophilus Beecheyi was so 
scarce in the mountains, that I saw only two, both near streams at 
four thousand feet altitude. They are, however, common near 
river-beds along the coast, though less so than formerly. I saw a 
small.spermophile near Julian which may have been S. lateralis, or 
a new species, obtained by me at Fort Mojave. 

_ The largest of our tree squirrels, found on the San Bernardino 

range (Sciurus leporinus), is absent, as well as all its arboreal 
allies. I saw none of the numerous and destructive murine bur- 
rowers, nor any bats, but a longer residence might furnish these in 
some spots. Of the Hare family I saw only a few; Lepus Califor- 
nicus in the foot-hills, and L. Audubonii once about two thousand 
feet up. 

Deer, requiring much water, are very scarce, while the moun- 
tains are too rough for the antelope, and too much wooded for the 
mountain sheep, though both of these may occur not far away. 
-On account of the scarcity of carnivorous animals, certain kinds 


* The complete drying bef of the streams | mom this range, at times, is shown by es 


absence of fish. than W 
, miles north of San Felipe at the head of San Luis Rey riv 
+ The finding of Lagomys ceps, the “ Little Chief Baa? by Mr. Gabb, on a moun- 


tain in Lower Ca lifornia ten thousand feet high and near the boundary line, is a prob- 

lem in zoology not easily W olved, as = animal could not have reached there from the 

north under the 8, since it does not come lower down on the 

Sierra Nevada in latitude 39° than six thonsand feet (see saree wesc of the Academy 
Sciences, Philadelphia, 1858). 


16 ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 


of small and prolific species become very abundant after one or 
two rainy years. Hares and rabbits may then be seen by hun- 
dreds at a time, and the California quail as well as other resident 
birds show the same rapid increase in such years, when food is 
abundant. Two very dry years preceded this, and consequently 
all these animals had become quite scarce.* 


BIRDS. a these I give a list, with such notes as seem requisite. [Those marked ł 
try from January to — 1862.] Turkey buzzard 
(Cathartes aura), chiefly seen near base of mountains; prairie falcon (F. polyagrws), 
seen once or twice; sparrow hawk singel te apr verius), “quite ss sharp- 
shinned hawk (Accipiter fuscus), not rare; bro , very com- 
mon from the base to the mines, L5G í nes aliada g always prized, bu t I did not 
find any nests nor shoot a specimen. i seems to be the form sarih e of 
this region, though the western red-tail (B. baa is also None of B. 
Swainsonii seen. Squirrel hawk (Ar chibuteo ee krh near a open plan ; 
marsh hawk (Circus Hudsonius), at alm very me anew or ded prem; 
t Golden eagle (Aquila Canadensis), seen rarely ; bo Vi Ap 
seen m: chara on all par ts of the route where any trees exist; burrowing owl (At 


FOU 


ER Oe ee 


Hair ow woodpecker (Picus Harrisii), a common sateen in eps forests high up; 
California woodpecker (Melanerpes micivorus), very co n, probably up to the 
highest summits, but not age to the mésa, chiefly in the o 

t Lewis’ woodpecker (M. quatus), not uncommon in a higher mountains; red 
Skana flicker (Colaptes Meefoama), à se megs Apai sical a humming- 
t re they proba a 
breed. Ann na eilidean te Ča oe oat suits ob common along tha route. The 
were perhaps other cate pie I aid not identify th 

t Oregon swift (Chet mig g 
26th, and may DaM summer in ike: ala, [The rare white-throa 


(Panyptila aT reeds in the Santa Anna mountains, fifty miles north, and 
perhaps in these.] 
t Poor sby (Antrostomus Hayre steaks = Cajon valley. I both heard and saw 


these sei near San Francisco as early 20th. Arkansas and Cassin’s kingbi 

{! verticalis and T. T. vociferans), sia mes ed near the foot-hills, or below. Ash- 
mateg Ayeatehor (Myiarchus Mexicanus), n re up to 4,000 feet altitude; black 
pewee ceayore TE chiefiy abont = Tooth 
fp Lith aor ramped other eres miers bat 
not numerous up to 4,500 feet altitude; anne rush (Turdus nanus), ¢ 
thickets; robin (7. migratorius), common near the nA forests jac ae aN ee 
western bluebird (Siatia Mexicana), abund ant througho ut the nica yellow-throat 


ae me: Batts 


( Geothly 

+ Macgillivray’s warbler (G. Mugiorey, not so common, the in drier localities 
orange-crow: s ta), abundant ; in the lower parts. 

t Western warbler Dendreca occidentalis) oat nd 4,500 feet 
altitude, and probably remains all summer. This is the first time me — seen this 


at the "m 
bia river, and as pnr as Apr Ist, at Petaluma, California, atte ss". Large num- 
bers of this and the next four Ww th slopes, and 
though still awa a were Since a little, and doubtless build there. The others 
were Townsend’s, i the gray, Audubon’s and t the s ummer ie . Towns 

1); oods, as 
it doos at 6,00 ne ); Audabon’s Iy In the highest w + 


ude 39°; black-capped war bier ( 


ar ata ot tae ek a Coast Slope” in ‘thistjournal, a 
ree a Science, v, Feb., is. i 


eo 


ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 17 


quite common and u mmits; RE apa (Pyranga aM 6 ones 
dant on higher part gs eee iins, and down. to foot-hills in summer; cli allow 
pak stn lunifrons), the only kind ina qe: here, except on the high aR aeons 
3,500 


PS wallow (H. A al common. in the oak groves up to 4, yon Teek; mar aie 
(Progne aches), not uncomm seen rarely 
among mistletoe = me hills; ens on’s greenlet ( Vireo Hutton i), not rare on the low 
mountains; little vireo (V. pusillus), common in willow thickets ne. the lower aer 
of rivers. ory vireo ( V. solitarius), not rare, and spo a # mo g bird Br nus 
polyglottus), not seen above the edges of the mésa. [Th ch aka 
(Oreoscoptes montanus) has been — ee near $ San ee i con billed thrush Apis 
porhynchus cep common in the lower 

t White-th oe pe en (Catherpes eee seen and heard only near Cajon valley, 

among immense granite bo widers. heir cry sounds like tes — laughter 
Bewic es wren pp edna Bewickii), common in the lower country; wren-titmouse 
sehisescas Lamhe). very ERLA on the i ahixebby EPEE ee ation nuthatch 
( pine woods. f oo poe 
(S. pygmea), also common aio ng pines e up; gr se RE (Lophophanes inorna- 
tus), not rare parsan ea oak forests; mountain titmouse ( Parus ea 5 very 
common indeed near the pine forests. It is possible on this may prove a new species, 
as they looked smaller Aa differently marked, but I did not succeed in et ting ere 
Other “critical” species may yet be found to repre sect some of the northern bir 
here named. east titmouse (Psaltriparus minimus), common at 7 half-way an 
mountains; horned lark (Eremophila cornuta), abundant on vein plains everywhere. 
I Baw fledged young os sass Pines, May 3. 


tina?), or some similar bird, I saw and heard 
a fe ew times 1 near the ‘summits of the moun ntains; lark finch ( Chondestes grammaca) is 
common on most open plains up to 3,000 feet altitude; Bells finch smeeep ies Bases is 


on most parts up tg 4,000 feet; Heermann’s song sparrow Saige iza Heermanni), ae 
common; black-headed grosbeak (Guiraca melanocephala), very common in all the 
woods. 


+ Bl G l ite common up to 4,500 feet. [Going north 
I saw trentyfive n miles north of San Diego, a single he arg goldfinch (Chrysomitris 
I ch ( i ena 


t Cow bird ( Molvthru thrus pecoris) oceu flocks on the east side of summit only, at 
4,500 feet Tt yellow headed 1 blackbird a (Xanthocephatus icterocephalus), with the 
pages nd also o Ua neglecta). everywhere 

u open pat goes mea adows; Bullock’s oriole (Icterus B ullockii), common; hoode 
iole (J. cucullatus), not rare up to 2 00 feet in Fook: neg = wer’s blackbird (Scole- 


or 


ophagus ae anocephalus), abundant almost n (Corvus carnivorus), in 
pairs occasionally up to at least 4,500 fost’ sweater eae a fitas). common u up to 


t Clarke’s crow (Picicor Columbi ?) urs, as almost alway’ in the 
Tan pine forests, but at this season is so shy and aiak that I am not certain of huy- 
en it. 


a Stellers jay (Cyanura Stelleri) was not rare in the pine woods. California i 
(Cyanocitta Californica), ), confined to > the osk woods up to about four thousand 
altitu 

f Band-tailed pigeon (Columba fasciata), in small flocks above three thousand feet 
altitude 

t Mountain quail ( Oreortyx pictus) in — above three bee five hundred 
feet, eae were p aed by April 28th. Lafterwards heard what I think was this bird on 
am Anaheim, Los Angeles Co., a not over one thousand feet elevation 
where s niall cypress trees S grow. A male shot agrees ex zoey with description 


AMER. NATURALIST, vou ti. 32 


18 ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 


except m size smaller than caapi This is one hundred and twenty miles south of 
the most southern locality before kno 

California quail (Lophortyx Californi ae fined to tl gion below tl th d 
five hundred feet. 

Snowy heron (Garzetta candidissima), I saw once at a pond on east side, four thou- 


)s 
sand ni oe — feet. Kildeer ( Zgialitis vociferus), common about every gr velly ` 


stream o: 
+ Stilt Aans nigricollis), prae migrating April 30th, when I saw a flock 
of a Spang at the eats locality as | 


t So. al along wooded stream 
high in ape ten. -Coot (iulian seny oae rare on pools s high up in the moun- 
tains. Mallard (Anas boschas), in on the ponds and head waters of San 


M: 

Se river at four thousand fiye art ou altitude, where they no doubt remain 

all s 
ak ye eighty-four PEED observed, only t are new to the onni and all 
these are species of m ore northern range. Three or four belong rather to the 
mésas than am mountains, w with others not menpioned. During my former six months’ 
REEDS I found twenty other species of land birds alone, within ten miles of the 
oast; some showers only winter visitors there. I saw also twenty- six other waders, 

fty-two swimmers. 


REPTILES — ne noticed ae above the mer paraan on account of the early season, 

though it was war g ap on our return route. Many little 
Hyl illa) h ma nd I heard what I supposed to 

be salamanders piping with them at aight. 

FISHES. — None are known t ge 

Mo.Liusca,— At ae canon of San Diego river is a rich locality ee terrestrial species, 
as I found there pot meeting point of the five et ore belonging to the mésa and 
the mountains ociated in sont etre number t diffi eg to obtain living, as 


they had TERAN aaa into deep fissures of oe saa My rapid journey was ot 
paga sei esi many species, but they ave been collected by Mr. H. Hemphill, 
s, also by Mr. Hemphill, Mr. G. = Dunn and myself neir San Diego (in 


coe ag so peg can pae the following lists, comparing the species of the two regions. — 


e saw no trace of the Lower Californian Bulimuli, etc. 


— N SPECIES. MOUNTAIN SPECIES. 
1. Lysinoe Carpente 2. Lysinoe Traskii. 
3. Arionta ? Toinn 4. Arionta tudiculat: 


Maerocyclis Voyana. 6. M. Vancouverensis 7H. Newberryana. i 
orea. : 


5. 
7. “Helix” Newberryana (Limax cam-| 8. Hy: es 
pestris, I found at San Juan R., 50| 9. C rsina 
miles northward, and it very proba- | 10. Pecuionyalin 3 Mazatlanica. 
Diego Bay). | 11. Vallonia minut 


: bly occurs nearer to San 
oa peat ma 13. Succinea Gioii diais. 
12. , Succinea rus 15. Lymnophysa me 
l4. Limnophysa prema 17. Physa diaphan 
; oe Physa Gabbii. 19. Pisidium i 
aaa -virgata. (Not on | > 2. Young, of 2-3 wh, hirsu 
4, Up to 1,000 ft. elevat 


5. For and others, see Proc. distinct from rn species. — 

oak cad. v,i June, 1871. jes. 

7. This inh ae in the | foothills not Only seen in the Cano ge 
ede or Mes. ft. elevation, and at the upper 

18. — ae it Desert with Helisoma am- 


th EA 


6. T found this dead only ind t think it may be 


~ 


ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEVELOPMENT 
AND THE SEXUAL CONDITION IN PLANTS. 


BY JOHN STOCKTON-HOUGH, M.D. 
— 00an 


InprAn Corn (Zea Mays) is sexually monecious, that is, the 
male and female flowers are normally on different parts of the same 
plant. Occasionally, however, the female flowers appear among 
the male flowers, on the same raceme, and more rarely, the male 
flowers appear on the spike (ear) among the female flowers, and 
still more rarely, they are hermaphroditic. 

Other observers reverse the order of rarity of these anomalies 
and say that ‘male flowers sometimes appear amongst the female 
flowers, and Mr. J. Scott has lately observed the rarer case of 
female flowers on a true male panicle, and likewise hermaphrodite 
flowers.” * 

The writer collected and examined nearly a hundred specimens 
of these anomalies (female flowers among the males), during the 
last autumn (1872) with a view of determining the relationship 
between the proportion or excess of either sexual element and the 
condition of development of the plants bearing such anomalous 
flowers. 

stalks bearing female flowers among the males were almost 
without exception “ suckers,” that is, branches coming off from the 
main stalks at the nodes among the adventitious roots just below 
the surface of the ground. The junction of one of these “ suck- 
ers” with the-stalk on which it is a parasite, so to speak, is greatly 
constricted, and the point of attachment is scarcely more than an 
eighth of an inch across. There are few, if any, serviceable ad- 
ventitious roots to these suckers, so the stalk derives its nourish- 
ment wholly from the trunk to which it is joined, and as a conse- 
uence such stalks are short, slim and pale in color, having 
abridged internodes, or in other words, they are undeveloped. A 
wet season, injury to the main stalk, shady locations and the 
borders of fields, seem to favor their production. 


_ * Darwin, Variations in Animals and Plants under Domestication, out of Trans. of 
Botan. Soc. of Edinburgh, vol. viii, p. 60 
(19) 


20 ORIGIN OF SEX. 


From what has been brought forward, it would appear as if 
' these sexual anomalies were the result of deficient nutrition, from 
` which resulted defective development and restrained evolution of 
the sexual organs. 

There were many stalks to be found, bearing male flowers (“ tas- 
sels”) alone in the normal position (terminal), apparently perfect 
males in size and development, but no stalks are to be found 
bearing a complete spike (ear) of perfect female flowers alone, 
even when terminal. Such spikes (ears) are always defective, 
often being but partially filled with grains, even when no male. 
flowers are present. 

The spike (ear) is only an undeveloped branch, sometimes 
having two or three internodes it is true, but it is generally 
sessile. 

When the ear is in the normal position, no matter how much 
the female flowers may prevail or how defective they are, the male 
flower always normally appears in the terminal part of the main 
stem or stalk. Not so with the wholly male plant, which has a 
tassel in the normal position (terminal) without a sign of a place ` 
for a female flower. 

When the ear (female spike) abnormally bears male flowers, 
they are usually terminal on the cob, though sometimes they may 
be on any other part of the ear, even a single male flower 
among the closely crowded grains (females). Mr. Scott, as al- 
ready mentioned, speaks of having found. even hermaphrodite 
flowers, which would naturally appear to be much more rare 
among dicecious plants than among the moneecious, for the latter _ 
condition would appear to stand between the aoe and the 
hermaphroditic. i 

Great numbers of corn plants bear male ARRA only, while . 
none are female alone, and wherever they approach the latter con- — 
dition, the spike (ear) of female flowers is terminal. ‘These exclu- a 
sively male plants are usually as large as if not indeed larger than 
the normal kind (monecious) and are certainly more rank and 
_ vigorous in their growth than those plants which bear principally 
female flowers on the terminal part of the plant, which latter, as 
I have already said,are much shorter, more: slender, and pale in 
color. 

The following table will indicate these differences. Fifty spec- 


ORIGIN OF SEX. 21 


imens of plants of Indian corn, having an abnormal sexual 
arrangement of the flowers, had the following proportions :— 


Stalks having a few 
D o pron aa, amne Bonera ia 7- SE teo bavi Rent 
wor a er and siere aan male panic] pat ag cbt 
(dicecious). . (moneecious). Goroit rate tiai 
y dicecious). 
maphroditism), 
Average : * : 
height. 4 } 124 in. 118 inches. 88 inches. 46 inches. 
Terminal | ar: “ u 
internodes, } 1H in. 6-10 46 & 5-25 


From this showing it appears that in proportion to the partici- 
pation or predominance of the female element, just in that propor- 
tion does the plant decline in size and development, and we are 
forced to conclude, as we have shown in several other articles,* 
that females are undeveloped males, and this is true in plants as 
well as among animals. : 

In some cases where the female flowers were on the male pani- 
cle, instead of forming a single large ear, as was usually the’case, 
each branch of the panicle bore grains separately, which must 
have resembled what Bonafous mentions as a variety called Cy- 
mosa, which has its ears so crowded together that it is often called 
mais à bouquet. Some of the specimens examined by me had the 

appearance as if the col) had been separated into several segments, 
triangular in shape, bearing corn only on one side (the outer) of 
the triangle. 

Returning to those stalks bearing male flowers alone and which, 
I have said, are tallest, most rank, and best developed,—I would 
suggest that the absence of female flowers was due to retarded fe- 


* Longevity and other biostatic peculiarities of the J N. Y. Medical 
Record, May 15, 1873. pp. 241, 2, 3,4. The Relative ater phe acs Sexes, etc. N. 
Y. Medical Record, June 16 and July 15, 1873. pp.9. The Laws of Transmission of 
Resemblance from Parents to their Children. N.Y. Medical Record, Aug. 15, Sept. 15, 
Oct. 15, and Nov. 15,1873. pp.16. Statistics Relating to Births, Marriages and Deaths, 
and Movement of Population in Philadelphia, for the eleven years ending 1871. Penn. 

t Monthly, Sept., 1873. pp. 24. Papers of the Social Sci. Assoc. of Philadelphia, 1873. 
iture Feb. 15. 


ular, Phil. Med. Times, 1873. A new Theory as to the Cause of Enlargement of the 
Prostate Gland, etc. The Proximate Cause we ikna 

Dissertation appas e Trustees and Faculty of the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, March 13, 1868, for i T of Doctor re Medicine], entitled; 
Prepotency, —* Elective poe Sagi on- ~Siiegiatadity, or the differentiation 
of the Elements of Reproduction in the Human Species; the cause of Relative Steril- 
ity; By John necting ar A. M., M. Chem., ie New Jersey; The Cause of Rota- 
tion and a nearly equal number of pein in Births, 


22 ORIGIN OF SEX. 


cundation of the ovules from which such stalks were produced. 
This point might be practically tested by planting a single stalk 
in a field far removed from any other corn. The tassel should be 
cut off as often as required to prevent the male flowers from form- 
ing, then the pollen from another plant should be applied to the 
female flower at the latest moment when fecundation is possible. 
By this method we should expect to get the largest possible pro- 

portion of exclusively male-generating grains. To get the largest 
possible proportion of female-producing grains, the female flower 
should be fecundated at the earliest possible moment—earlier than 
nature does it. The grains produced under these circumstances 
would, when planted, give the largest and the smallest proportion 
of exclusively male or female plants. 

It would be well to determine whether the grains near the tip, 
in the middle, or near the base of the ear, gave the largest pro- 
portion of exclusively male-producing grains. The following will 
illustrate how the facts might be tabulated :— 


Number Whole Whole Average 
Oraina. Of stalks Stalks Stalks number number number of 
BD eki: one ear, twoears, of ears, 


of stalks. ears to each 
stalk. 


PV 
ie ae x P v mae Se Ao 


From middle ¥ T WN. TW Y+T+W hte 


From base z N Oo N+20 - Z4.N40 aero 

Metzger* has observed that the effect of climate on Indian corn, 
as cultivated in Germany, causes “the lower seeds in the ear to 
keep to their proper form, but the upper seeds become slightly 
changed.” 
te Among species of Carex, it is a common thing for the spike to 
consist of male flowers at the top, and female flowers at the base ; 
though the converse is much more common.”+ Dickson, Mohl, 
Schleiden, Braun, Cranmer and others have observed cones of 
different species of pines, usually female, having male flowers in 
the lower part of the cone. 

M. Charles Girou de Bu 


zareignues{ has made many observa- 
Sr nei 


. Annales des Sciences Naturelies, L xvi. p. 140, extracted from hia Da la Céndration. 
8vo, Paris, 1828. 
+ WT. oa. to 


yr pote 


+ 
eroos 
bed 


1 gy; Ray Soc... I ondon, 1869. 8v0, pp- 191 (Het- : . 


Sisiyan 1817, also, Moquin-Tandon; Éléments de Teratologie Végétal, 1841, p. 126, 


ORIGIN OF SEX. 23 


tions on the proportion of male and female plants produced from 
seeds taken from different parts of the hemp plant. He found 
that the seed taken from the lower, more mature, and more highly 
developed parts of the plant gave a much larger proportion of 
male-producing seed, than seed taken from the upper, more succu- 
lent, less mature, less highly developed parts, as the following 
figures will indicate. Of 125 hemp plants the proportion of 
males to females was— 


Males Females 
692 1000 


1° In the subjects taken from the weak oh eam re 
In those which came from strong pla 907 1000 

2° In the subjects ae from the seeds Sane by the 
inferior half of the stem of weak plan ants, oseceerebeee 1250 = 1000 
ate in oni ‘which wh wa cs p superior half.....« 444 1000 

3° In seed gue by the 
Pas gate half of f the stem f ads To E 1 1000 
d in those which came from the s mre Ralf o ssss 827 1000 


The same observer in subsequent experiments* declares that 
seeds from nearest the summit of the stem gave proportionally 
more females than those from the middle and base. The lower 
branches gave a larger proportion of males than the upper. I 
might repeat many similar experiments with the same result. 

Concerning the size of the seeds, he says that the largest and 
smallest gave a predominating proportion of males, while those 
of the mean size gave more especially females. 

The carefully made observations of Mr. Thomas Meehan of 
Germantown, Philadelphia Co., Penn., are singularly in harmony 
with those of Mr. Girou and others, though, I alia made en- 
tirely independently of a knowledge of the latte 

Mr. Meehan has observed that in several has of the order 
Cupulifere, and he believes in all of them, “we find the female 
_ flowers only on the strongest young growths, and only at or near 
the apex of the first great wave of spring growth, as if it were 
the culmination of a great vegetative effort which produced them, 
instead of a decline as in the male.” 


*Girou, Suite des Expériences sur la Génération des Plantes, | Annales des Sci- 
ences Naturelles, t. xxiv, pp. 138-148. 
tOn the igs of the phate Proc. Amer. Assoc. Ady. Sci., 1869, pp. 256-60. See 

also, ibid., , pp. 276-280; ibid., 1868, p. 317. Proc. Acad. Nat. ares 1868, 9, 70. Also 
Gardener's Monthly (edited by Mi: een), 1E, p- 333, et ~ Also Dr. S. W. 

Butler’ ti Medical and 
Surin Seti ne, Phila., "Oct. sy si p- 330, et al. loc. Op. cit.; also, Mr. Meehan 
in Old and New, Feb., 1872, p. 173 et seq. 


24 ORIGIN OF SEX. 


In the case of Norway spruces it is “only in the fourth or 
fifth year, when vitality in the spur is nearly exhausted, do male 
flowers abundantly appear.” 

Mr. David Moore, in his morphology of Nepenthes,* says that 
“vigor and healthiness increase the female line of vital force in 
vegetables, while weakness is more conducive to the male devel- 
opment.” When growth has ceased, maturity and complete de- 
velopment are accomplished, and the business of reproduction 
exclusively occupies the plant. 

From all this it appears then, that while the plant is mostly oc- 
cupied in vigorous growth, while it is yet succulent, immature, or / 
is, in other words, undeveloped, does it bear the largest proportion — 
or principally female flowers. As growth is antagonistic to de- 
velopment, and it is only after perfect development is reached 
that the reproductive function is most active, we are forced to con- 
clude that the production of male flowers or fruit is a higher effort i 
of the plant than the production of females. $ 

I have ventured to enunciate it as a law} deduced from a thor- 
ough study of the subject, that the greater the fecundity, in sin- 
gle births, the larger the proportion of male children, and vice — 
versa. I have also said that the begetting of males is a higher — 
role in the reproductive act of the mother than the hegetting of | 
females ; while the begetting of females on the part of the father — 
is a higher reproductive role than the begetting of males.{ In this — 
article it has been shown that the greater the “vigor” (rapidity of 
growth and excessive vital and vegetative action) the larger the 
proportion of females produced. Now, it is so well known and 
so universally recognized and pointed out by physiologists, that _ 
this same vigor is directly antagonistic to reproduction, that it is 
scarcely necessary for me to mention it. Hence females are be- 
gotten when the system is more occupied by the process of growth, 
reparation or disease, than when males are begotten. 

Dr. Henry Hartshorne§ has maintained Mr. Meehan’s view of 
the relation of vigor to sex. To the facts stated I fully agree, 


* Trans. of the Royal Irish Acad., Vol. xxiv, p. 629, 1870. 
t The Relative Viability of the Sexes, etc. N. Y. Medical Record, June 16, and July 
15, 1873, p. 301; and Statistics of Philadelphia, Proc. Socjal Sci. Assoc., 1873, p. 18. 
. ł See farther, in the author’s thesis, already alluded to, in foot-note; also his paper — 
on Laws of Transmission, ete., ete, 
e Relation between Vi: 


§On the 


a ony 


Proc. Amer. Assoc. Ady. Sci., 1872, PP 


ORIGIN OF SEX. i 25 


but the deductions which they have both arrived at, viz.: that the 
begetting of female offspring is a higher role on the part of the 
mother than the es of males, — that is, requires a more 
as a consequence, females are 
more highly Kai than Me are diametrically opposed to 
my own conclusions, as may be seen in this and in the other 
papers referred to. 

The use of the word “vigor” is scarcely scientific ; it has only a 
practical, conventional meaning, and should be studiously avoided 
by scientific biologists, as it is almost useless by way of compar- 
ison. Development is the proper physiological expression, and 
indicates the degree of evolution or maturity of the various organs 
of the animal or plant, and we can readily compare the different 
stages and degrees of development exhibited in each organ. Mr. 
Meehan studiously avoids the use of this last named word, and 
would, I am persuaded, alter his deductions if he should weigh its 
full meaning, and apply it in his comparisons. He cannot, how- 
ever, be too highly praised for his excellent series of observations 
already alluded to. 

ith a view of showing the fallacy of the use of this word vigor, 
I may state that Dr. Gouverneur Emerson of Philadelphia, several 
years ago, discovered that ‘‘the extensive prevalence of every 
severe zymotic epidemic, or endemic disease ; every occurrence, in 
fact, which exerts, either directly or indirectly, a decided, depress- 
ing effect upon a community, will be indicated in the record of 
births by a conspicuous reduction in the proportion of males.” * 
He bases this opinion upon the careful study of the statistics of 
births in Philadelphia during the prevalence of cholera in the year 
1833; also for Paris 1832. In the first named city, the per- 
centage of excess of male births for the decade from 1830 to 1840 
was 6°29, while “the diminution of male conceptions, during the 
cholera, was at the rate of 17 per cent.” The number of concep- 
tions during the months in which cholera prevailed was 1826 
males and 1851 females, or 98-64 males to 100 females. In Paris, 
in 1832, the year cholera prevailed there, the excess of male concep- 
tions was reduced from the usual average of 6 per cent. to 384 per 
cent. From this we see that a ‘‘lessened vigor,” so to speak, is ac- 
companied by an increase in the proportion of female births; so 


*C. perati let ining the Proportions of the Sexes at Birth. American 
Journal of the Medical Sciences, July, 1848, pp. 78-85. 


26 ORIGIN OF SEX. 


a lessened or increased vigor may determine this increased ten- 
dency toward the production of females ; in fact, anything which 
operates upon the animal economy by distracting it from the busi- 
ness of reproduction, such as rapid and vigorous growth, develop- 
mental processes, mental anxiety, or incipient disease, will cause 
a lessened fecundity and an increase in the proportion of female 
offspring. | 
Mrs. Mary Treat* of Vineland, N. J., has, by repeated experi- » 
ments on butterflies, found that by overfeeding a certain number, 
a large proportion of female eggs was produced, and that by 
underfeeding, or partly starving them, the poporo of male 
eggs was increased. : 
~ The writer has shown in his paper on “The Nationality of — 
Parents as Affecting the Fecundity and the Proportion of Sexes — 
in Births” + that foreign mothers (who are unquestionably more — 
“vigorous” than native mothers) have a much larger proportion 
of boys among their children. 
Mr. H. H. Howorth, in his paper entitled *Strictures on Dare a 
winism,”{ says that he “cannot but conclude that sterility is — 
induced by vigorous health and by a plentiful supply of the neces- 
saries of life, while fertility is induced by want and debility, and 
that this law acts directly against Mr. Darwin’s theory, in that it 
is constantly recruiting the weak and the decrepit at the expense . 
of the hearty and vigorous, and is constantly working against the 4 
favorite scheme of Mr. Darwin, that in the struggle for existence 
the weak are always being eliminated by the strong.” 3 
It will be seen by the above that the views of Mr. Darwin and — 
_ Mr. Howorth are both extreme; the former believing that the 
_ greatest fecundity and best products belong to the most vigorous, — 
while the latter believes that the most feeble are most prolific, and 
have the most vigorous offspring. 
The writer is of the opinion, from a careful study of the wubjett 
that a medium condition between these two extremes is most 
favorable to fecundity and the production of healthy, vigorous 
offspring, namely, developmental maturity of the parents, and . 
moderate supply of food in connection with a life most in accord- 
ance with nature. o‘ 
* AMERICAN a 1873, Laws Controlling the, Sexes in Butterflies. — 


oS 


Philadelphia 
eee ee Anthropological Institute. ‘London, April, 1872, pp. 21-40. P- or 
t 1, Fertility and Sterility, 


ORIGIN OF SEX. 27 


We have seen, then, that excessive ‘‘ vigor” increases the pro- 
portion of females ; lessened ‘‘ vigor” decreases the proportion of 
males (apparently increases the proportion of females) ; and that 
greater ‘‘ vigor” increases the proportion of males :— from all of 
which we conclude that there is no constant ‘relationship between 
‘vigor’ and sex.” 

In my paper on the “ Relative Viability of the Sexes, etc.,” in 
which I have shown that females have a higher viability (greater 
longevity) than males, I ventured to ascribe this greater viability 
to the fact of female fetuses sapping the vitality of the mother 
more than males. However this be, there can be no doubt of the 
facts stated, for Prof. Martegoute* in his observations on the 
breeding of the Dishley Mauchamp merino sheep, says,—‘‘ Our 
monthly weighings show that the ewes that have produced female 
lambs are on an ayerage of weight superior to those that 
produced the males; and they evidently lose more in weight than 
these last, during the suckling period; while the ewes that pro- 
duce males, weigh less, and do not lose in nursing so much as 
the others.”7 ‘That is, mothers are in better condition when they 
conceive females, and are in better condition when they wean 
males than females.” Dr. Congar{ has observed the same thing 
concerning women. Dr. Spruce,§ a South American traveller, 
noticed that a certain palm (Geonoma) bore fruit (female flowers) 
one year, and male flowers the next, alternating from male to 
female from year to year. This same fact is seen in some ani- 
mals, that bear females for several generations, then males; in 
fact the process of ‘alternation of generations” is dependent 
upon this principle, of which I shall have more to say in another 
paper. || 

I have stated that some stalks bore only male flowers, and sug- 
gested that this fact was the result of retarded fecundation of the 
ovule from which the stalk was produced, and I may now point 
out how nature allows these peculiarities to be produced. 

It has been observed, says Lindley, that the quantity and kind 
of light to which the plant is subjected determine the sex of the 


* Journal d'Agriculture Pratique, ete 
t Goodale, Breeding, etc. of Domestic Animals. Boston, 1861, pp. 91, 92. 
İH. M. Congar, M. D., Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal, August, 1867. 
§ Criticism on Dr. Spruce’s article, by Dr. Wendland, in Botan. Zeitung, 1869. 
The Cause of Rotation and ep E Number of Sexes in Births. 
ry of Horticulture, N. 


+ 


28 ORIGIN OF SEX. 


future products of the seeds produced under these circumstances. ~ 
General Pleasonton* of this city has lately determined that both q 
animals and plants thrive better under a violet colored light, — 
which is in harmony with the experiments of Dr. Daubeny.f ~ 
Mr. Thomas Andrew Knight { observed that the relative quantity — 
of light and heat determined the sex of the flowers produced by 4 
certain plants. Lindley says, “It will be found that no pollen is 
scattered in damp, cold weather, but in a sunny, warm, dry morn- 
ing the atmosphere surrounding such plants, is, in the impregna- 
ting season, filled with grains of pollen discharged by the anthers. 
In wet springs the crops of fruit fail, because the anthers are not 
sufficiently dried to shrivel and discharge their contents, which 
remain locked up in the anther cell till the power of impregnation 
" is lost.” 
Gaertner § has pointed out in his “ Notice sur des Expériences 
concernant la Fécondation de quelques Végétaux,” the decided i 
fluence of the state of the atmosphere on the process of fecun 
tion. He insists on the maturity of the pollen as essential to the 
process. During a warm time the stamens of the rue accomplish 
their movements in two or three days, whilst they are, by a cold 
air and an advanced season, scarcely terminated in eight days. 
Fecundation requires also a greater quantity of pollen in the la 
case than in the other. || F 
This being the case, we can readily understand that a few Y 
days may prevent the pollen from being disseminated, while the 
ovules continue developing, and fecundation is retarded from this 
cause, and it is for this reason that the production of a larger 
proportion of exclusively male-producing-grains i is due. 
Darwin§ says that “walnut trees, which are properly mo 
cious, sometimes entirely fail to produce male flowers ;” and “th 
female silver maple will not unfrequently put forth branches 
— male flowers.” — 
: Some cultivator has recorded ** a series of experiments 


“ftir, Lines 1 sche aia na bii. Phil. Trans., 1836, p 
Mr. Knight’s Physiological Papers, pp: wan out of the 


PE E E tliche Abhandlungen, Tubingen, 1826, t 
Koelrenter. Vorlanoties Nachricht von Einingen das cae pon banun 
treffenden Versuchen, pp. 10, 19, from Dondi sima Chronicle, 1847, pp. 541-558. _ 
3 paar oann e pani cation 
** American A; t » Orange Judd, M. A. Editor. 


ORIGIN OF SEX. 29 


Indian corn, with a view of obtaining the largest proportion of 
stalks bearing two ears. The following was the method employed ; 
all the stalks bearing but one ear had the “ tassel” (male flower) 
cut off before it was full blown, so that all stalks bearing two ears 
would be surely fecundated by the male flowers of the same or 
other stalks also bearing two ears, thus securing duplicity on both 
the male and female sides. In this way, we are told that the pro- 
portion of stalks bearing two or more ears, was increased to a 
considerable extent, by the planting of grains procured by this 
process.* 

A single ovule may be fecundated by the pollen of at least two 
different varieties, as may be seen from Mr. Arnold’s experiments 
given below t. 

From what we have shown, it would appear that the grains near 
the base of the ear are less variable and more mature than those 
near the tip, and are consequently more desirable for seed, as they 
would be likely to give plants more vigorous and prolific. 

I may state here that it is the habit of good farmers to select 
the largest and fairest ears, containing the largest, fullest, and 
hardest grains, for seed; and that a popular notion prevails that 
ears having a few remaining glumes of abnormally placed male 
flowers at the tip of the cob are called “female ears” and are 
supposed to be more prolific, at least are thought to be more de- 
sirable for “seed”? ; whether there be any foundation for this belief 
I am ste informed, but am inclined to look upon it as a “vulgar 
error.” 


*From James Logan’s experiments it would appear as if it were the rule, under or- 
dinary circumstances, for the female flowers of plants = the same hill to be igor: 
principally by the pollen from male flowers in the sam —— Experimenta et Me 

metemata de Plantarum palma, auctore Jacobo L an, Leyden, 1739. Nrenchigal 
into English by J. F., iginal rigs text, opposite page. London, 


p. 9. 
t Mr. Arnold of Paris, Canada, has shown that if the female flowers of an Indian 


t related, 
pollen se a yellow variety of corn, eae oe to that taken from a white variety; the 
result was an ear of corn each hich was yellow below and white above. 
‘The conclusion ‘presented i is, a only that there T Seaman influence on the seed 
pollen, but the more impor- 
tant fact that one ovule can bè affected ‘by the efis - hd distinct parents, and thir, 
r some time had elapsed between the first and second impregnation. [From 
~ aa paper on The Laws of Transmission of Resemblance from Parents to 
Jhildren. New York Medical Record, 15th of Aug., Sept., Oct., and Nov., 1873, 
= ok of Scribner’s Monthly, Sept., 1873.] 


30 ORIGIN OF SEX. 


Columella* and Celsus}, in ancient times laid gront stress upon 
the selection of seed-corn ; and Virgil} says — 


“Tve seen the largest seeds, tho’ view’d with care, 
Degenerate unless th’ industrious hand 


Did yearly cull the largest.” § 


To recapitulate ara e conclusions arrived at in this paper 4 f 
are :— g 

1. That in plants, and animals as well, that are actively occu- 
pied in vegetative, physiological, pathological or other efforts 
which are antagonistic or complementary to the office of repro- — 
duction, the proportion of females borne during such times is 
greater than where the plant or animal has reached full develop- 
mental maturity || and growth, is in good health, and is occupied ~ 
principally in the process of reproduction. In this latter condi- | 
tion offspring of a higher developmental condition are produced, — 
and the proportion of males is increased. 

2. Females are in better condition (that is, they are fatter, 
more active in growth), more troubled by disease,§ or other pro- 
cess antagonistic to reproduction where they conceive with fe- 
males than with males; and they are made poorer, become more 
exhausted, and less healthy, by the production of female offspring 
than by male products. 

4. It is just possible that the ovules from which females 
derived may have a higher initial vitality (vigor) though the 
be less highly developed than those from which males are derived, 
yet no egg can properly be said to be predestined to pa male 
female. 

5. That female plants like female animals are less highly devel 
oped than males, and are the result of an inferior developmental 
reproductive effort on the part of the female dea 

"De Re Rustica, — . 

Darwin; 


ARE NS EDE ONE E E R T 


p tication, vol. ii, p. 303. 


_ §Darwin, yin, op. eit., voli, p. 31 
|| See farther ahs harbors paper on The a Aspects of oe el « 
tho Relative: Pistality or Gat ng of Different Pregnancies.—New Y 


Offspri 
Record, January 15 and February 15, 1874. 
T Dr. Gouverneur Emerson was the first to ‘point out the effect of a prenie a epi- 
demic (cholera) in reducing the proportion of male births. See his proof in hi 
oe Sis American Journa? of Medien Sctencee, duir, 200, Pp. 78-85. 


RAMBLES OF A BOTANIST IN WYOMING 
TERRITORY. 


BY REV. E. L. GREENE. 


I. 


Srruatep in the midst of a wide waste of treeless and even 
shrubless plains, which are at an elevation of a mile and more 
above the level of the sea, the city of Cheyenne would scarcely be 
thought a central point from which one might make many interest- 
ing little botanical excursions. The strong northwest winds, 
which prevail here almost incessantly, by day and by night during 
all the winter months, seem to sweep all the snows into the valley 
of the La Poudre, in northern Colorado, and leave the plains of 
Wyoming quite bare ;. so that one sees here only the short dry 
curly turf of buffalo and grama grasses, here and there inter- 
spersed with the spiny balls of Echinocactus Simpsonii. More 
than once during the winter of 1871-2, on the calmer, better days 
that are incident to even a Wyoming winter, did the writer of 
these notes stroll forth upon those plains, to ask of the sere 
grasses and withered cacti, what else could possibly grow among 
them in the summer. 

Our first spring visit to this region was made on the twentieth 
of May. The grasses were beginning to show green, the little 
spherical Echinocacti were crowned each with its chaplet of rose- 
purple flowers, and the low matted Phlox Douglasii was blooming 
almost everywhere. A few rods from the depot of the U. P. Rail- / 
way we stood upon the ridge of bluffs that overlook the turbid 
stream called Crow Creek, and its now beautiful little valley. 
The pebble beds that lie along the shore of this almost alpine 
river are quite gorgeous with purple and yellow. The yellow we 
recognize as the handsome bloom of Thermopsis fabacea, a common 
plant of this region, bearing heavy racemes of lupine-like flowers, 
but the purple is apparently something more interesting. It is a 
low growing plant, so small that although we are but a few rods 
from where it is, and we are looking almost straight down upon a 
large, dense patch of it, we cannot determine it. The color is 
much like that of several of our beautiful Coloradian Astragali, 

(81) ` 


_ about noonday, and we are but ten miles from Cheyenne. There 


- of w — on foot; for these bluffs and table-lands are no’ 


our eyes tell us. Is it possible that all this is Nuttall’s Oxytropis 


— little half-starved stranger where we found it then; but here it is 


-and has collected fruit as well as flowers. All our Rocky Moun- i 


a great variety of flowers at this high altitude. We must wait 


_ glory. 


the high lands of Wyoming. We pass the boundary line between 


32 RAMBLES OF A BOTANIST IN WYOMING TERRITORY. 


but it is not their habit to grow so thickly as to color the whole 
face of several acres, for taking a glance up and down the stream 
we behold the gravel beds everywhere purple with the same 
abundance of bloom. After waiting just a moment in order to en- 
joy the pure delight of a happy anticipation, we hasten down the 
steep bluff side, and find ourselves scarcely able to believe what 


multiceps, one of the most rare and charming of all the plants that — 
are peculiar to the Rocky Mountains? A plant hitherto rarely 

met with at all, and only on a few alpine summits in Colorado — 
and Montana. The year before, we had taken a few depauperate 
specimens, in seed only, on one of the Colorado Mountains, and 
had prized even those poor ones very highly. It grew like a poor — 


luxuriant and plentiful, and this Wyoming region is doubtless its _ 
proper home. Passing up to the bluffs of the other side, a half — 
mile or so away, we find two or three other very interesting little 

leguininous plants, Astragalus sericoleucus, a silky-white, spreading 

vetchling with purple flowers, and also the more rare Astragalus — 
cespitosus, the latter scarcely yet in full flower; and finally an- 
other, with silky-white foliage, and most splendid racemes of 
purple. Of this plant we found but one root, out of which we 
made half a dozen herbarium specimens, but it proves to be N ut- 
tall’s O. Lagopus. It was thought to be a species yet undescribed ; _ 


a r ee ee ae 


Dr. C. C. Pàrry has this season found the same farther northward, 
tain species of this genus are beautiful, and this rare one is among 
the finest. i 

But the middle of May is rather too early in the season to find — 


about another four weeks, if we are to see these plains in all their : 


ti i noy me 20th of June, and we are ascending the grade of 7 
the Denver Pacitic Railway from the lower plains of Colorado, t 


Blas 


the two territories, just as the highest point is reached. It is noW i 


is plenty of time for a botanist to reach the city before night, and 
"r beg of our conductor the privilege of making the remainder 


RAMBLES OF A BOTANIST IN WYOMING TERRITORY. 33 


gorgeous with flowers of many colors, and we are impatient to see 
what they are. The whistle sounds, and the train slackens speed, 
until the leap may be made with safety, and we alight. The train 
moves on and soon passes from our sight, and we are alone but 
for the distant companionship of a beautiful herd of antelope 
which graze upon a near hill-side, a jack-rabbit, and a colony of 
prairie dogs. But we were landed just on the south side of a line 
of snow fence, where the snows drifted deep last winter, and so 
moistened the ground that the flowers and grasses of June are here 
to be found in greatest luxuriance. Let us see what we have. 
Very conspicuous are some yellow heads of a composite, borne 
upon tall and slender scapes, and waving with the grasses in the 
wind. At the base of each stem is a rosette of narrow, somewhat 
silky leaves, and the plant is Actinella scaposa Nutt. 

In the winter season, on the hill-tops near Cheyenne, we had 
noticed some close tufts of mossy-green, sharp-pointed leaves, and 
here we find the very plant in bloom. It has sent up numerous 
branching stems, two inches or more in height, bearing rather large, 
sandwort-like flowers. It proves to be Arenaria Hookeri Nutt., a 
rare species as well asa handsome one. The truly elegant little As- 
tragalus ceespitosus, which a month ago was barely beginning to 
show bloom, is not yet gone by, and here we gather lovely speci- 
mens of it with the rest, and then pass on over and between various 
hills and bluffs, and out upon the clear green nepense of plains, 

toward the metropolis of Wyoming. 

Now we are in the midst of a dense patch of wild peas, of a 
low growth, hairy leaves, and very large purple flowers ; a form of 
Lathyrus polymorphus Nutt.; and a plant scarcely inferior in 
beauty to the best of the cultivated species of this genus. 

Yonder is a slight depression in the surface of the plain, where 
there was more moisture in early spring. The whole spot of 
ground is colored dark dull red, not with flowers, but with the large 
showy fruits of Rumex venosus Pursh. Two species of Pentstemon 
are especially attractive among the flowers of this region; P. cris- 
tatus Nutt., with very large pale purple flowers, in a short rather 
one-sided raceme, and P. albidus, with smaller and almost white co- 
rollas, arranged in alongraceme. The latter species is abundant, 
almost whitening long lines of ridges. A very fine perennial lupine, 
whose specific name I cannot venture to give, with blue and black 
flowers borne in large dense spikes, is very noticeable on the stony 

AMERICAN NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 3 


34 ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY. 


hill-sides ; and again in the valleys, or gentle depressions between 
the rolling hills, are the rich purple tufts of Astragalus bisulcatus 

ray. This is a very handsome perennial, and would be desira- 
ble enough for cultivation, but for its disgustingly strong odor of 
bean-vines. 

Besides these more noticeable things, our ten miles walk added 
to our herbal several very interesting rarities, which would have 
been overlooked by one who had sought only the showy and beau- 


tiful things of this interesting ground. A remarkable profusion of — 


very handsome flowers, of a few species only, is what especially 
characterizes the flora of this region at this season of the year. 
Passing through it by rail, one sees as much of the purple and 
red and white and yellow of the plants mentioned, as of the 
common verdure of the prairie grasses. 


THE PRESENT ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND THE 
METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY.* 


BY PROFESSOR ALLMAN, 


——$ SO 
Conception of Biology and Function of the Scientific Method.— 
Under the head of Biology are included all those departments of 


scientific research which have as their object the investigation of 
the living beings—the plants and the animals—which tenant the 
surface of our earth, or have tenanted it in past time. 

It admits of being divided under two grand heads: Morphology; r 
which treats of Form; and Physiology, which treats of Function; 
and besides these there are certain departments of biological study 
to which both Morphology and Physiology contribute, such as. 
Classification, Distribution, and that department of research which 


is concerned with the origin and causes of living and extinct 


forms. 


By the aid of observation and experiment we obtain the email | 
which are to be combined and developed into a science of living — 


beings, and it is the function of the scientific method to indicate 
the mode in which the combinations are to be effected, and the path 
2 EEEE 


Pinson from the opening address before Section Be ren di the Bri 
for the Advancement of Science, delivered Sept. 18 


TING Eee pg eee fe eid Aen eh ee PNN 


ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY. 35 


which the development must pursue. Without it the results gained 
woula be but a confused assemblage of isolated facts and discon- 
nected phenomena; but, aided by a philosophic method, the ob- 
served facts become scientific propositions ; what was apparently 
insignificant becomes full of meaning, and we get glimpses of the 
consummate laws which govern the whole. 

Classification an Expression of Affinities.— Hitherto we have 
been considering the individual organism without any direct refer- 
ence to others. But the requirements of the biological method 
can be satisfied only by a comparison of the various organisms one 
with the other. Now the grounds of such comparison may be va- 
rious, but what we are at present concerned with will be found in 
anatomical structure and in developmental changes; and in each 
of these directions facts of the highest order and of great signifi- 
cance become apparent. 

By a carefully regulated comparison of one organism with an- 
other, we discover the resemblances as well as the differences be- 
tween them. If these resemblances be strong, and occur in impor- 
tant points of structure or development, we assert that there is an 
affinity between the compared organisms, and we assume that the 
closeness of the aflinity varies directly with the nlopenoss of the 
resemblance. 

It is on the determination of these affinities that all philosophic 
classification of animals and plants must be. based. A philo- 
sophical classification of organized beings aims at being a succinct 
statement of the affinities between the objects so classified, these 
affinities being at the same time so set forth as to have their vari- 
ous degrees of closeness and remoteness indicated in the classifi- 
cation. 

Affinities have long been recognized as the grounds of a natural 
biological classification, but it is only quite lately that a new sig- 
nificance has been given to them by the assumption that they may 
indicate something more than simple agreement with a common 
plan— that they may be derived by inheritance from a common 
ancestral form, and that they therefore afford evidence of a true 
blood relationship between the organisms presenting them. 

The recognition of this relationship is the basis of what is 
known as the Descent Theory. No one doubts that the resem- 
blances we notice among the members of such small groups as 
those we name species are derived by inheritance from a common 


36 ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY. 


ancestor, and the Descent Theory is simply the extension to the 
larger groups of this same idea of relationship. 

If this be a true principle, then biological classification becomes 
an exposition of family relationship—a genealogical tree in which 
the stem and branches indicate various degrees of relationship and 
direct and collateral lines of descent. It is this conception which 
takes classification out of the domain of the purely morphological. 

Affinity determined by the study of Anatomy and Development.— 
From what has just been said it follows that it is mainly by a com- 
parison of organisms in their anatomical and developmental char- 
acters that their affinities are discoverable. The structure of an 
organism will in by far the greater number of cases be sufficient to 
indicate its true affinity, but it sometimes happens that certain 
members of a group depart in their structure so widely from the 
characters of the type to which they belong, that without some 
other evidence of their affinities no one would think of assigning 
them to it. This evidence is afforded by development. 

A Philosophical Classification cannot form a single Reetilineal 
Series. —A comparison of animals with one another having thus 
resulted in establishing their affinities, we may arrange them into 
groups, some more nearly, others’ more remotely related to one 
another. The various degrees and directions of affinity will be 
expressed in every philosophical arrangement, and as these affini- 
ties extend in various directions, it becomes at once apparent that 
no arrangement of the animal or vegetable kingdom, in a straight 
line ascending like the steps of a ladder from lower to higher 
forms, can give a true idea of the relations of living beings to one 
another. These relations, on the contrary, can be expressed only 
by a ramified and complex figure which we have already compared 
to that of a genealogical tree. 

Distribution and Evolution.— Another very important depart- 
ment of biological science is that of the distribution of organized 
beings. This may be either distribution in space, geographical 
distribution: or distribution in time, paleontological distribu- 
tion. Both of these have of late years acquired increased signifi- 
cance, for we have begun to get more distinct glimpses of the laws 
by which they are controlled, of the origin of faunas and floras, 
and of the causes which regulate the sequence of hfe upon the 

_ Time, however, will not allow me to enter upon this sub- 
ject as fully as its interest and importance would enbo and a 


ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY. 37 


few words on palzontological distribution are all that I can nów 
venture on. ; 

The distribution of organized beings in time has lately come be- 
fore us in a new light by the application to it of the hypothesis of 
evolution. According to this hypothesis, the higher groups of or- 
_ ganized beings now existing on the earth’s surface have come 
down to us, with gradually increasing complexity of structure, by 
continuous descent from forms of extreme simplicity which çon- 
stituted the earliest life of our planet. 

In almost every group of the animal kingdom the members 
which compose it admit of being arranged in a continuous series 
passing down from more specialized, or higher, to more general- 
ized or lower forms; and if we have any record of extinct mem- 
bers of the group, the series may be carried on through these. 
Now while the descent hypothesis obliges us to regard the various 
terms of the series as descended from one another, the most gener- 
alized forms will be found among the extinct ones, and the farther 
back in time we go the simpler do the forms become. 

By a comparison of the forms so arranged we obtain, as it were, 
the law of the series, and can thus form a conception of the miss- 
ing terms and continue the series backwards through time, even 
where no record of the lost forms can be found, until from simpler 
to still simpler terms we at last arrive at the conception of a term 
so generalized that we may regard it as the primordial stock, the 
ancestral form from which all the others have been derived by 
descent. * 

This root form is thus not actually observed, but is rather ob- 
tained by a process of deduction, and is therefore hypothetical. 
We shall strengthen, however, its claims to acceptance by the ap- 
plication of another principle. The study of embryology shows 
that the higher animals, in the course of their development, pass 
through transitory phases which have much in common with the 
permanent condition of lower members of the type to which they 
belong, and therefore with its extinct representatives. We are 
thus enabled to lay down the further principle that the individual, 
in the course of its own development from the egg to the fully 
formed state, recapitulates within that short period of time the va- 
rious forms which its ‘ancestry presented in consecutive epochs of 
the world’s history ; so that if we knew all the stages of its indi- 
vidual development, we should have a long line of its descent. 


38 ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY. 


Through the hypothesis of evolution, paleontology and embryology 
are thus brought into mutual bearing on one another. 

Let us take an example in which these two principles seem to be 
illustrated. In rocks of the Silurian age there exist in great pro- 
fusion the remarkable fossils known as graptolites. These consist 
of a series of little cups or cells arranged along the sides of a com- 
mon tube, and the whole fossil presents so close a resemblance to 
one of the Sertularian hydroids, which inhabit the waters of our 
present seas, as to justify the suspicion that the graptolites consti- 
tute an ancient and long since extinct group of the Hydroida. It 
is not, however, with the proper cells or hydrothece of the Sertu- 
larians that the cells of the graptolite most closely agree, but rather 
with the little receptacles which in certain Sertularinæ belonging to 


the family of the Plumularida we find associated with the hydro- 


thecæ, and which are known as ‘*Nematophores.” A comparison 
of structure then shows that the graptolites may with considerable 
probability be regarded as representing a Plumularia in which the 
hydrothecs had never been developed and in which their place had 
been taken by the nematophores. 


Now it can be shown that the nematophores of the living Plu- 
mularida are filled with masses of protoplasm: which have the — 
power of throwing out pseudopodia, or long processes of their sub- — 
stance, and that they thus resemble the Rhizopoda, whose soft parts 
consist entirely of a similar protoplasm and which stand among the 
Protozoa, or lowest group of the animal kingdom. If we suppose ~ 
the hydrotheca suppressed in a plumularian, we should thus nearly a 
convert it into a colony of Rhizopoda, from which it would differ — 
only in the somewhat higher morphological differentiation of its — 
cænosarc or common living bond, by which the individuals of the — 


colony are organically connected. And, under this view, just such 


a colony would a graptolite be, waiting only for the development — | 


of hydrotheca to raise it into the condition of a plumularian. 


Bringing now the evolution hypothesis to bear upon the ques- 
tion, t would follow that the graptolite may be viewed as an an- — | 
cestral form of the Sertularian hydroids, a form having the most 
intimate relations with the Rhizopoda; that.hydranths and hydro- — 
thecze became developed in its descendants ; and that the rhizo- 
podal graptolite became thus converted, in'the lapse of ages, into 


the hydroidal Sertularian. — 


This hypothesis would be strengthened if we found it agreeing 


So EA 


ae Sees ee eee code Pos eke sec ai ge s 
A a VE E ARE REENT N ER CENIE DIT S © OT E E A N FEN TI E AAOS EEDE SSeS EENET Re RNE 


ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY. 39 


with the phenomena of individual development. Now such Plu- 
mularida as have been followed in their development from the egg 
to the adult state do actually present well-developed nematophores 
before they show a trace of hydrothecæ, thus passing in the course 
of their embryological development through the condition of a 
graptolite, and recapitulating within a few days stages which it 
took incalculable ages to bring about in the paleontological devel- 
opment of the tribe. 

I have thus dwelt at some length on the doctrine of evolution þè- 
cause it has given a new direction to biological study and must 
powerfully influence all future researches. Evolution is the high- 
est expression of the fundamental principles established by Mr. 
Darwin, and depends on the two admitted faculties of living be- 
ings— heredity, or the transmission of characters from the parent 
to the offspring; and adaptivity, or the capacity of having these 
characters more or less modified in the offspring by external agen- 
cies, or it may be by spontaneous tendency to variation. 

The hypothesis of evolution may not, it is true, be yet estab- 
lished on so sure a basis as to command instantaneous acceptance ; 
and for a generalization of such vast significance no one can be’ 
blamed for demanding for it a broad and indisputable foundation 
of facts. Whether, however, wedo or do not accept it as firmly 
established, it is at all events certain that it embraces a greater 
number of phenomena and suggests a more satisfactory explana- 
tion of them than any other hypothesis which has yet been 
proposed. 3 

With all our admiration, however, for the doctrine of evolution 
as one of the most fertile and comprehensive of philosophic hy- 
potheses, we cannot shut our eyes to the difficulties which lie in the 
way of accepting it to the full extent which has been sometimes 
claimed for it. It must be borne in mind that though among some 
of the higher vertebrata we can trace back for some distance in 
geological time a continuous series of forms which may safely be 
regarded as derived from one another by gradual modification — as 
has been done, for example, so successfully by Prof. Huxley in the 
case of the horse—yet the instances are very few in which such a 
sequence has been actually established ; while the first appearance 
in the earth’s crust of the various classes presents itself in forms 
which by no means belong to the lowest or most generalized of 
their living representatives. On this last fact, however, I do not 


40 ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY. 


lay much stress, for it will admit of explanation by referring it to 
the deficiency of the geological record, and then demanding a 
` lapse of time—of enormous length, it is true—during which the 
necessary modifications would be in progress before the earliest 
phase of which we have any knowledge could have been reached. 
Again, we must not lose sight of the hypothetical nature of i 
those primordial forms in which we regard the -branches of our 
genealogical tree as taking their origin; and while the doctrine — 
of the recapitulation of ancestral forms has much probability, 
and harmonizes with the other aspects of the evolution doctrine 
into a beautifully symmetrical system, it is one for which a suffi- 
cient number of actually observed facts has not yet been adduced : 
to remove it altogether from the region of hypothesis. ‘ 
Even the case of the graptolites already adduced is an illustra- 


tion rather than a proof, for the difficulty of determining the true S 
nature of such obscure fossils is so great that we may be alto- 4 


gether mistaken in our views of their structure and affinities. L 


kaaa aaa a a d ia a a a a a a a a aa 


Par. 


To me, however, one:of the chief difficulties in the way of the 4 


doctrine of evolution, when carried out to the extreme length for 


period of time whose vastness is such that the mind of man is 
utterly incapable of comprehending it. Vast periods, it is true, 
are necessary in order to render the phenomena of evolution pos- 
sible; but the vastness, which the antiquity of life, as shown by- 
‘its remains in the oldest fossiliferous strata, requires us to give 
to these periods, may be even greater than is compatible with 
continuity. oe 

We have no reason to suppose that the reproductive faculty in 


which some of its advocates contend, appears to be the unbroken 4 
continuity of inherited life which it necessarily requires through 4 a 


had continued by inheritance through all the ramifications of 
single genealogical tree down to our own time; the branches 
the tree, it is true, here and there falling away, with the extinction 
: of whole genera and families and tribes, but still some alway 
remaining to carry on the life of the base through a period of time 


ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY. 41 


to all intents and purposes infinite. It is true that in a few cases 
a continuous series of forms regularly passing from lower to higher 
degrees of specialization, and very probably connected to another 
by direct descent, may be followed through long geological peri- 
- ods, as, for example, the graduated series already alluded to, which 
may be traced between certain mammals of the Eocene and others 
living in our own time, as well as the very low forms which have 
come down to us apparently unmodified from the epoch of the 
Chalk. But incalculably great as are these periods, they are but 
as the swing of the pendulum in the millennium, when compared 
to the time which has elapsed since the first animalization of our 
globe. 

Is the faculty of reproduction so wonderfully tenacious as all 
this, that through periods of inconceivable duration, and exposed 
to influences the most intense and the most varied, it has still 
come down to us in an unbroken stream? Have the strongest 
which had survived in the struggle for existence necessarily 
handed down to the strongest which should follow them the power 
of continuing as a perpetual heirloom the life which they had 
themselves inherited? Or have there been many total extinctions 
and many renewals of life—a succession of genealogical trees, the 
earlier ones becoming old and decayed, and dying out, and their 
place taken by new ones which have no kinship with the others? 
Or, finally, is the doctrine of evolution only a working hypothesis 
which, like an algebraic fiction, may yet be of inestimable value as 
an instrument of research? For as the higher calculus becomes 
to the physical inquirer a power by which he unfolds the laws of 
the inorganic world, so may the hypothesis of evolution, though 
only a hypothesis, furnish the biologist with a key to the order and 
hidden forces of the world of life. And what Leibnitz and New- 
ton and Hamilton have been to the physicist, is it not that which 
Darwin has been to the biologist? 


But even accepting as a great truth the doctrine of evolution, 


let us not attribute to it more than it can justly claim. No vali 
evidence has yet been adduced to lead us to believe that inorganic 
matter has become transformed into living, otherwise than through 
the agency of a preéxisting organism, and there remains a resid- 
ual phenomenon still entirely unaccounted for. No physical hy- 
pothesis founded on any indisputable fact has yet explained the 
origin of the primordial protoplasm, and, above all, of its marvel- 
lous properties which render evolution possible. ; 


myriad voices, to the ice-fields of polar latitudes and those si 


the leading aspects of biological science, and to indicate the direc- 
grand and solemn import, for it embraces man himself and is the 


it is life, and life stretches back into the illimitable past, a 


42 ASPECT OF BIOLOGY AND METHOD OF BIOLOGICAL STUDY. 


Accepting, then, the doctrine of evolution in all freedom andin — 
all its legitimate consequences, there remains, I say, a great resid- 
uum unexplained by physical theories. Natural Selection, the 
Struggle for Existence, the Survival of the Fittest, will’ explain 
much, but they will not explain all. They may offer a beautiful q 
and convincing theory of the present order and fitness of the or- 
ganic universe, as the laws of attraction do of the inorganic, but 
the properties with which the primordial protoplasm is endowed— ~ 
its heredity and its adaptivity—remain unexplained by them, for ~ 
these properties are their cause and not their effect. a 

For the cause of this cause we have sought in vain among the 
physical forces which surround us, until we are at last compelled — 
to rest upon an independent volition, a far-seeing intelligent de- ~ 
sign. Science may yet discover even among the laws of physics 
the cause. it looks for; it may be that even now we have glimpses — 
of it; that those forces among which recent physical research has — 
demonstrated so grand a unity—light, heat, electricity, magnet- ~ 
ism—when manifesting themselves through the organizing proto- 
plasm, become converted into the phenomena of life, and that the : 
poet has unconsciously enunciated a great scientific truth when he — 
tells us of . | 


“ Gay lizards glittering on the walls 
Of ruined shrines, busy and bright 
As though tk alive with light.” 


But all this is only carrying us one step back in the grand gen 
eralization. All science is but the intercalation of causes, each 


tions which biological studies must take. Our science is one 0 
exponent of the laws which he must obey. Its subject is vast, 


forward into the illimitable future. Life, too, is everywhere 
Over all this wide earth of ours, from the equator to the poles, 
there is scarcely a spot which has not its animal or its vegetable den: 
izens—dwellers on the mountain and on the plain, in the lake and 
on the prairie, in the arid desert and the swampy fen; from th 
tropical forest with its strange forms and gorgeous colors and 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 43 


seas which lie beneath them, where living things unknown to 
warmer climes congregate in unimaginable multitudes. There is 
life all over the solid earth; there is life throughout the vast 
ocean, from its surface down to its great depths, deeper still than 
the lead of sounding line thas reached. 

And it is with these living hosts, unbounded in their variety, 
infinite in their numbers, that the student of biology must make 
himself acquainted. It is no light task which lies before him — 
no mere pastime on which he may enter with trivial purpose, as 
though it were but the amusement of an hour; it is a great and 
solemn mission to which he must devote himself with earnest 
mind and with loving heart, remembering the noble words of 
Bacon : — 

“ Knowledge is not a couch whereon to rest a searching and 
restless spirit; nor a terrace for a wandering and variable mind 
to walk up and down with a fair prospect; nor a tower of state 
for a proud mind to raise itself upon; nor a fort or commanding- 
ground for strife and contention; nor a shop for profit and sale; 
but a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and the relief 
of man’s estate. 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 

Tur Systematic Position or THE Bracurtorops.* —To those ac- 
customed to find the Brachiopods invariably mentioned in palæon- 
tological as well as zoological works as shell-fish, with no hint of 
an affinity to any other class of animals, the author’s remark at 
the beginning of his essay that ‘‘ the Brachiopoda are true worms, 
with possibly some affinities to the Crustacea, and that they have 
no relations to the Mollusca, save what many other worms may 
possess in common with them,” will seem in its nature somewhat 
iconoclastic. But we should remember that Cuvier regarded the 
barnacles as Mollusca, and it was not until 1830 that Thompson 
and Burmeister demonstrated from their mode of growth that these 
shell-bearing animals were undoubted Crustacea; the Serpule and 

pirorbes were regarded as shell-fish by many collectors, and even — 


*The Systematic Position of the Brachiopoda. By Edward S. Morse. (From the 
of the Boston Society of Natural History, xy. Published August, 1873. 
Svo. pp. 60.) 


44 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


the bivalve phyllopods (Estheria) of our fresh-water pools are 
daily mistaken by collectors for species of Cyclas. On the other 


Lingula pyramidata. 


hand certain worms, such as the flat worms or Planarians, have ) 
been regarded as allied to the snails and slugs by good naturalists. 
We will now attempt, so far as is possible, to condense the 


paper of Professor Morse by giving his chief arguments for con- 


Fig. 2. ; Fig. 3. a i 
l b ; 


Tra of Lingula. 
b, bands suspending intestine in perivis Transverse section of Annelid, after 
ceral cavity; i, intestine; s, segmental b, bands suspending intestine in per 
- organ; 0, ovaries; 1, liver; g, gills; se, se, ral riggs i, intestine; s, segmental 
sete. se, se, sete 


Fig. 4. Fig. 5. 


Molluscan archetype, after Carus. 
Transverse section ot monia- 
Can archetype, after Caru 


idering the “‘Lamp-shells” as worms. He first defines the t 
classes. The worms haye an elongate form, while that of 


è 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 45 


mollusk is concentrated or sac-like; hence the term Saccata 
applied to them by Professor Hyatt. 

In the mollusk the viscera are usually contained in a large 
chamber protruding above the foot, while in the worm ‘‘ the sym- 
metry of the body is never disturbed by the — 
viscera.” In the mollusk, moreover, the man- 
tle is sac-like, ‘‘inclosing a conspicuous cav- 
ity,” and protecting the gills, while the ali- 
mentary canal is straight in the worm, rarely 
convoluted, and suspended freely in the peri- m 
visceral cavity, by bands (Fig. 1, b); in the 
mollusk this organ is always sandali, and & 
intimately blended, or united, with other or- 
gans. The nervous system of the worms con- 
sists of a nerve collar from which start two 
parallel chains of ganglia,while in the mollusks foot; b - ays m, mouth; : rf 
there is a nerve collar, but no double chain, gill 
and instead, nerves are thrown out to the sensory, motor and 
parieto-splanchnic regions. The eggs of worms are usually (ex- 
cept in the leeches) set free in the general cavity of the body, 
which is not the case with the mollusks. Lastly, the embryo 
mollusk (Fig. 6) early develops a shell composed of one or two 
pieces, while the embryonic worm is usually distinctly ringed, 
as seen on the opposite page. 

Here, in passing, we would remark that while the mollusks are 
admirably characterized, the author has, we think, failed to give 
sufficient importance to the most fundamental and important char- 
acter in the typical worm. Certainly the ringed, segmented 
structure of the worm is that which, more than any other char- 
acter, separates it from other animals, and when the rings are 
absent, as in the Planarians, Nematoids and other low worms, this 
is an adaptive character resulting from their peculiar habits. 
Moreover it should be remembered that our author regards the 
Brachiopods as a division of Chatopod worms, in which the seg- 
ments are invariably present, and form the most important feature 
of those animals. Again, we fail to find any reference to the re- 
lation of the most important anatomical systems (the nervous, cir- 
culatory system and digestive canal) to the walls of the body. e 
correlation in structure of the nervous system of the higher worms 
to the segmented structure is also most intimate and remarkable. 


Fig. 6. 
s 


Embryo yt vexed apa 


46 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. i 


Fig. 7. 


Embryos of Worms. 


Fig. 7, Serpula; Fig. 8, Spio: Fig. 9, Melicerta (Rotifer); Fig. 10, Pileolaria; Fig. 
Phoronis; (Pig: p Ah ei Figs. 8 and 10, from laparede ; F .9, from Huxley; F 
? a = 


o 
Embryos of Brachiopods. 


Figa. 19. 12 14 mi E4. FFAN poe eo re 
ts 5 > 
ji f \ | 


Figs. 15, 16, 17, Terebratulina (original). 


wd 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 47 


To this deficiency in the definitions, otherwise so full, we shall re- 
cur in noticing the author’s conclusions as to the more immediate 
relationship of the Brachiopoda. It may 
also be noticed that in none of the dia- 
grams of the transverse sections of the 
worms are the positions of the dorsal ves- 
sel or nervous cord in relation to the body 
walls indicated; and in this respect the 
same view of the mollusk is unsatisfac- | 
tory. This is said not so much by way of 
criticism, as to call attention to important Portion of Peduncle of Lin- 
i gula pyramidata, showing an- 
differences between the Brachiopods and nulations, and circulation of 
Cheetopodous worms, which demand seri- 
ous consideration in accepting the conclusions as to the precise 
systematic position of the Brachiopods claimed by the author. 
Farther on, in speaking of the general proportions of the body, 
it seems that the author does not lay much stress on the ringed 
Fig. 19, structure of the higher worms, of which it 
NEL should be borne in mind he considers the Brach- 
iopods to form a division. Thus it is stated, 
almost casually, that ‘‘a prominent character of 
the higher worms is the annulations or rings 
marking the body.” As, however, the annula- 
tions are wanting in certain low worms (i.e. the 
Notre bel co- Gephyrea or Sipunculoid worms, Sagitta, Nema- - 
median dorsa] t0idea, Acanthocephala*) the absence of this 
notch; 1, lateral noteh. character in the Brachiopods is unimportant; 
still, however, the peduncle 
Ree is “partially annulated” 
(Fig. 18). 
The comparison between the 
mollusks and worms is then ex- 


Fig. 18. 


Fig. 20. 


suggestive way, the author a Head of Discina. Head of Sabella. 
that in the worms the integum 
is rarely ever extended bond x limits of the body ; but when 


*It shonld be borne in mind that these worms are mostly parasitic, or, as in Sagitta 
ee very aberrant forms, and the absence of rings is probably a secondary 
or se alapin ive character. 


48 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


it is it forms a broad cephalic collar, “covering the base of the 
arms in those worms possessing it (as in Sabella, Fig. 19), while in 
the Brachiopoda the collar covers and protects the arms,” and this 
collar is not to be compared with the mantle of mollusks. On 


Fig. 22. 


‘Longitudinal section of anterior portion of Lingula. 


Fig. 23. 


Longitudinal section of anterior portion of Amphitrite ventrilabrum. 
mouth; æ, esophagus; st, stomach; a, arm; ci, cirri; bf, brachial fold; cb, carti- 

lngmons base of arm; 8, sinus leading to arm; ce, :, cephalic seller or pallial membrane- 
page 27 the cephalic region of the true worms is discussed, and 
the intimate relationship between the head of certain worms, such 
as Sabella and Amphitrite, and that of the Brachiopods, shown. 
This can be seen by a glance at the accompanying figures. 

cannot farther abstract the condensed statement of the author: 


By making a longitudinal section of the worm Amphitrite, and q 


the brachiopod Lingula, the most interesting relationship may 
detected (Figs. 22 and 23). 


4 T pore 
5) EEE, eee eS Es 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 49 


Considering the arms alone we are told that a transverse section 
of: a right arm of Amphitrite (Fig. 24) resembles that of Lingula, 
(Fig. 25) much more than ‘corres- Fig. 24. Fig: 25. 
ponding sections of two Brachiopods l 
resemble each other.” 

Bristles like those of worms, moved 
by muscles, and quite unlike the stiff 
spines of the Chitons occur in the 
Brachiopods. The muscles of the 
integument bear the closest resem- 
blance to those of worms. The peri- 
visceral cavity is shown to be, like 


: ; Transverse sec- 
that of worms, lined with a delicate sectionofarm tion of arm of Lin- 


of Amphitrite gula pyra amidata. 
trilubrum. 
ci, cirri; bf, brachial fold; s, sinus. 


eo 
2 


membrane and strongly ciliated. 
_ Prof. Morse has succeeded in finding 
a vessel on the dorsal surface of the intestine of Lingula, but not 
the vesicle described by Hancock. But still he, as well as others, 


Fig. 26. 


Fig. 27. 


Fig. 28. 
Fig. 29. 
À 
\A 
\ 
A 
NA 
MA 
Amicula Emersonii. Nerine cirratulus. Discina. 
ihe papae Deciduous seta Deciduous seta 
— muscular pi EAk worm, of larval Discina, 
layer cirratulus, from Fritz Miiller. 
the girdle; Som C Claparède. 
bristles ime magni- 
2 f girdle; b, 


has never succeeded in studying the vascular system satisfactorily. 

He, however, alludes to a pseudo-hæmal system of organs, being 

a set of membranes which invest the oviducts, and has traced the 

circulation in living arip hae This subject, and the circula- 
AMER. NATURALIST, VO. 4 : 


50 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


tion of Lingula, which has red blood, is reserved for discussion in 
a subsequent memoir. The digestive canal of the Brachiopods, 
as well as the circulatory system, does not compare well with 
those of the normal worms. 


“The anomalous features presented by some worms, in the 
absence of an anus, or the possession of a ccecal stomach, and 
the anterior termination of the anus, are fully repeated in the 
Brachiopoda. In one entire division of the ‘ag mage iat rene 
sented by Terebratula, the stomach terminates in a cecal s 
In Terebratulina the alimentary tract is closed posteriorly. Not 


has the slightest trace of an anus been detected in Thecidium, | 


Waldheimia, Rhynchonella, and several other genera that have 
been examined. In the very early stages of Terebratulina, I 


has 

Terebratulina, the alimentary tract pursues a direct antero- poste- 
rior course without convolutions, while in Lingula and Discina the 
anus terminates anteriorly on the right side. In Lingula, the in- 
testine makes a few turns, while in Discina it makes a single turn 
to the right.” 

The nervous system is much as in the worms, there being two 
lateral ventral cords, widely separated (in Lingula these lateral 
threads seem to be double and connected by commissures) and 
connected at the esophagus by ganglionic enlargements, which 
send off threads to the pallial membranes, and to the various mus- 
cles. The breathing organs of Brachiopods are contained in the 
pallial membrane, which is divided into two oblique transverse 
sinuses, apparently resembling the interior of the branchia of a 
worm. The genital organs are almost identical with those of 
worms, as may be seen by a study of Figs. 30-40. 


We now quote the author’s conclusions in his own words :— 


“In considering the assemblage of remarkable characters in 
the Brachiopods, we must recognize in them a truly ancient a 
and. consequently a synthetic, or comprehensive type. hus 
while we do not find them in all their characters ented any 
one group of worms, I have endeavored to show that all their 
features, to a greater or less degree, are shared by one or the 

th various pope of the Vermes, with one or two 
features shared by the Arthre 

It is important to remark in this connection that most of the 
ancient groups differ from present groups with which they are 

a Thus the Trilobites are widely unlike modern Crus- 
touk AS, Milne-Edwards and Van Beneden suggesting t their affini- 


AE DRS N EE MA A SE ENE eg NEE «i Sele ASA ae ot SESE E E eee ED 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 51 


Fig. 31. Fig. 32. 


Segmental organs of worms. 
Lumbricus; Fig. 31, Pectinaria; Fig. 32, Eunice; Fig. 33, Stylodrilus; Fig. 34, 
o: 


_ Fig. 30, . 
Nereis; se, segmental rgan, 


genitalia, v, vascular channel, 7, intestine; Fig. 30 is 
from Lankester, the rest From Clapartde, ao se : . 
Fig. 36. Fig. 37 Fig. 38. 


Segmental organs of the Brachiopods. 


Fig. 35, Discina; Lingula; Fig. 37, Rhynchonella; Fig. 38, Terebratulina. 
Sichuacvece me ives Ealo np Sret Pal Ag i en ae 


52 : REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES.. 


ties with the Arachnids. Tetrabranchiate Cephalopods are widely 
separated from the Dibranchiate Cephalopods. Crinoids are 
widely unlike modern Echinoderms. In other words, among the 
Mollusks, Echinoderms and Crustaceans are ancient types widely 
different from the modern types with which they are correlated. 
So in worms we should expect to see ancient types, while pa 
senting a high organization, yet differing from e? esent groups to 
which they are unquestionably related. ‘And fro 
the high complication of structure of the Arathi. Wie. 
opods, “Tetrabranchiates, and other ancient types, 
it would seem that in their culmination in ancient 
times they had i same relation to animals living 
then as the higher groups of present times bear 
to their ee As to the more ancient forms 
of Brachiopods, it is probable with them, as with 
other groups, that their lower members were soft- 
bodied, and the argument that has been urged, as 
militating against Darwin, that animals of high 
complication of structure occur in the older 
ney tt becomes valueless, when we consider that 
e lower forms of their respective groups are 
more often soft-bodied, and that complicated forms 
of earlier times wn -a Sea forms of 
preexisting gr 
To sum up the aks eh :—ancient Cheetopod Alciope Cantrainii. 
worms culminated in two parallel lines, on the m, inner mouth, 
one hand in the Brachiopods, and on the other, in oui ae ype ee 
the fixed and highly cephalized Cheetopods. The orifice of dito; b 
an rab of the Brachiopods, having been at- : 
in more ancient times, a few degraded features are yet re- 
tained, whose relationships we find in the lower Vermes; while 
from their later divergence the fixed 


Fig. 40. 


close allied to present free Chæto- 
. pod 


S. 


pods, 
Sabella, Protula and other 


Chætopods 
Segmental He P SIN 


Of ditto; e extemal orifice ar ae Aside from the great interest of 


orifice of ditto; 


A Resp naa a, accessory vesi- the memoir, the skilful and concise — 
manner in which the facts, — many 
discovered by the author himself after the most patient ee 


which would in —— commend the work fa SYR, one —4 


o 
fe mental organ of 4 


tie cephalized Annelides are more — 


| i 4 * eo eal in as modern (later) pees 7 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 58 


presented, we think the author has demonstrated, in the clearest 
manner, that the Brachiopods are worms. And we congratulate 
ourselves that this important discovery of the obscure relationship 
of these animals has been made by an American naturalist, with 
the advantages presented in this country. 

Still, from the facts so clearly set forth, we doubt whether the 
Brachiopods should, even with all the important'Chætopod charac- 
ters they present, be included in the division of Chætopod worms, 
but rather look forward to their being united with the Polyzoa in a 
division equivalent, perhaps, to the rest of the worms, at least the 
Chætophora and Discophora combined, and forming a somewhat 
parallel group. The Brachiopods, certainly, from Prof. Morse’s 
own showing, have not either such a nervous system, Or respira- 
tory or circulating organs, or an annulated body, as would warrant 
their union with the Chetopods. He has fully proved that they 
are a synthetic type, combining the features of different groups of 
worms and other articulate animals, and in doing so he virtually 
forbids our sharing his view as to their special Cheetopod nature. 
We would prefer, in speculating on their ancestry, to derive the 
Brachiopods and Polyzoa from a common vermian ancestry, not 
much higher than the Rotifers, from which sprung two stems; one 
resulting in the Polyzoa, and the other in the more highly and 
specially-developed Brachiopods, while the Cheetopods were prob-. 
-ably derived independently from an ancestry higher perhaps, but 
vaguely resembling the Rotifers. As to the molluscan affinities 
of these animals, let those prove them who can, after. going over 
step by step the track revealed by the patient. and toilsome re- 
searches of our author. 


NORTH AMERICAN Grassnorprers.*—Dr. Hayden proposes to 
collect, in a single quarto volume, papers upon the zoology and 
botany of the Rocky Mountain region explored by him in his gov- 
ernment surveys. The fishes and reptiles will be elaborated 
by Professor Cope, the botany by Professor Porter, Hemiptera 
by Mr. Uhler, Coleoptera by Dr. Horn, birds by Dr. Coues and 
mammals by Professor Gill. The first part, on a portion of the 
Orthoptera, is now published, and if the whole work is executed 
upon the same scale, one volume cannot contain it all: let us hope 
that it will not. In the part before us, Dr. Thomas does not 
"Report of the U.S. Geological Survey of the Territories. F. V. Hayden, Geologist 
in charge. Vol. v, Zoology and Botany. Part i, Synopsis of the Acrididæ of North 
America, by Cyrus Thomas, Ph.D. 4to. pp. xX, ashington, 


op aA TE a 


54 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


confine himself to the study of Rocky Mountain forms, but 
includes the Acridians of the whole of North America. It is pre- ' 
ceded by an introductory statement of the external and internal 
structure of insects of this group, with especial reference to parts — 
used in description ; by an exposition of the author’s idea of clas- 
sification and by notes on the geographical distribution of the 
genera and species. In the body of the work one hundred and 
twenty species and twenty-five genera of U. S. Acridians are 
described ; forty species and four genera as new. In the second 
part, the extra-limital species are described, but no new species are 
mentioned; and nearly all the descriptions, as well as many of 
those in the first part, are borrowed ; it would have been well if 
the author had appended the describers’ names. The work is ac- 
companied by a well executed plate (none too large) in which, 
strange to say, neatly one-third of the figures are of European 
species,—copied from Fischer’s work ; surely, from the abundant 
material in the author’s possession, suitable specimens could have 
been found for illustration. ; 


Brrrisa Marie SeawreDs.*—This is a convenient little book, 
of which four parts have already appeared, and five or six are to 
follow. Mr. Grattan, whose home is at Torquay in Devonshire, 
a place famous in the history of British natural history, is 4 
thorough enthusiast in seaweeds, and finding that the standard 
treatises on them were too scientific for the use of ordinary ama- 

teurs, and withal quite expensive, he has prepared this work, 
_ which is so simple that the most inexperienced student can readily — 
understand it, whilé the price, sixpence sterling for each part, is — 
moderate enough. Since a very large proportion of our New 
England alge consists of species occurring on the shores of Great 
Britain, and since Harvey’s Nereis, the only work on the alge of 
the United States, is costly and not suited to the needs of ama- 
teurs, this book will be very useful to those who not only collect, 
but desire to know something about seaweeds and sea-mosses.— 
Dante, C. Eaton, © 7 . 


Lupsocx’s Monocrapy or tue Popurx.—Sir. John Lubbock 
has recently published a ‘‘ Monograph of the Collembola and Thy- 


sanura.” It forms a volume, in octavo, of the Ray Society. The 
*) 


British Marine Alge: being a popular account of the Seaweeds of Great Britain, 
their collection and preservation. Illustrated. By W. H. Grattan. London: “The 
Bazaar” office, 32 Wellington street, Strand, VC. < 


s 


BOTANY. 55 


work is beautifully, indeed lavishly, illustrated with seventy-eight 
plates, of which thirty-one are colored, nearly every plate repre- 
senting a distinct species highly magnified. The work will com- 
mend itself to microscopists, as it is accompanied by an essay, by 
Mr. Joseph Beck, on the scales of certain Poduræ, with figures of 
the scales highly magnified. 


BOTANY. 


IRRITABILITY OF THE LEAVES OF THE SuNDEw.—In our last 
number attention was called to the old observations of Roth re- 


` specting the irritability of Drosera leaves. It will be interesting 


to our readers to glance at a short abstract of Roth’s treatise.* 
The author begins by referring to the difficulty of drawing any 
line of demarcation between animals and plants. Some plants were 
believed, by the ancient philosophers, to possess a soul, since they 
appear to share with animals a kind of sensitiveness and motion. 
The word sensitiveness is, on some accounts, objectionable and it 
may be better, therefore, to employ the term irritability. A few 
plants possess this irritability in a high degree, but may we not as- 
cribe to others, irritability less in degree? The author next refers 
to the kindred plants Dionea muscipula and Drosera, intimating 
that the latter has, in a slight degree, the kind of irritability which 
characterizes the flytrap. He then describes the action of Dionza 
in catching insects, and proceeds to give an account of the two 
more common species of sundew, Drosera rotundifolia and longi- 


olia. 

In July, 1779, while on a botanical excursion, Roth observed that 
some leaves of both species of Drosera had closed. Upon sepa- 
rating the infolded surfaces, he discovered dead insects, whereupon 

asked himself whether sundew did not act just as Dionæa does. 
He transferred healthy plants to his house and proceeded to make 
the following experiments : — 

lst. He placed, by a pair of pincers, an ant on the open leaf of 
Drosera rotundifolia. As soon as the ant tried to recover its free- 
dom, the hairs of the leaf turned towards his body, and the edges 


of the leaf rolled over towards him. In a few minutes the ant was 
oe eee pare 5 EA eee 


nm yoo 4 


-*Von der Reizbarkeit der Blätter des sog ten S ii 
folia, longifolia.) Beyträge zur Botanik, Erster theil. s.60. Von Albrecht Wilhelm 
Roth. Bremen, 1782. On the Irritability of the Leaves of the so-called Sundew (Dro- 
a rotundifolia). p.60. By Albrecht Wilhelm Roth. 1732 


56 : BOTANY. 


concealed in the infolded leaf. The insect was killed by this im- 
prisonment. This experiment was repeated upon other leaves and 
with nearly the same results. 

2nd. He placed a little fly, being careful not to injure it, on a leaf 
of Drosera rotundifolia. The insect made some movements to gain 
his liberty, but he soon died, as did the ants in the previous exper- 
iments. The hairs bent inwards as before. The experiment began 
at eleven a.m. At five o'clock P. m: the leaf had completely closed 
_ and held the fly within. 

The third observation was made upon a specimen of Drosera 
longifolia. An ant was employed, and with the same results as be- 
fore. It is interesting to note the following on p: 64:—‘‘ Dieses 
Zusammenklappen erfolgt aber auch ebenso wenn man ein Stroh- 
halmchen oder eine Stecknadel zwischen dieselben bringt.” 

The author makes some remarks relative to the similarity of ac- 
tion in the two genera, Dionzea and Drosera. The most interesting 
note, however, is that in respect to the purpose of the irritability. 

“Mr. Ellis suggests in his letter to Linnæus that nature, by the 
formation of the leaf of Dionzea, may perhaps have designed it to 
aid in its nourishment. Schreber, however, believes it is unlikely 
that plants should draw nourishment from insects pressed between 
their leaves. It is certain that we cannot determine positively 
what object the wise Creator may have had in giving to these plants 
this wonderful structure and irritability, but I believe that we may 
assume safely that this structure and faculty of these plants may 
tend, through this nourishment, to the preservation and propagation 
of their kind. We cannot yet determine whether these plants may 
not need for their support animal juices. Besides, knowing as We 
do that these plants have, chiefly on their leaves, an apparatus by 
which they may draw from the air foreign bodies a their nourish- 
ment, we have no reason to doubt this possibility.’ 

The author claims that no one had preceded him in this investi- 
gation. 

_ In 1802, Roth published the following note (Neue Beyträge 
zur Botanik, von Al. W. Roth. Erster Theil. Frankf. am Mayn. 
1802. p. 185). ‘In Droseris Germanicis simile phenomenon 0b- 
servatur et non minus miraculosum, quam in Dionsea muscipula, 
Foliorum scilicet pili apice oriferi ab Insecto irritati inflectuntur, 
inflexi Insectum incarcerant, et folium demum complicatum incar- 
ceratum tenet.” 


ZOOLOGY. 57 


Passing over the statements in De Candolle’s ‘‘ Introduction à 
étude de la Botanique” (Tome 1, p. 415) 1835; in Treviranus’ 
Physiologie der Gewachse (1838, vol. ii, s. 759), in Meyen’s 
Neues System der Planzen Physiol. vol. iii, s. 550, we find in 
Botanische Zeitung, June 29, 1860, an article by Nitschke, de- 
tailing an extensive series of experiments upon Drosera. These 
results, together with the very curious observations published in 
Comptes Rendus last year, we will present at an early day, feel- 
ing quite confident that many of our readers will carefully repeat _ 
some of these experiments during the coming season.—G. L. G. 


ZOOLOGY. 

A New Acertan Marre Borer. — Last June my attention 
was drawn to numerous castings, similar to those of the peach 
tree borer ( Trochilium exitiosum Say) projecting from the trunk of 
the soft maple trees surrounding our university yard. Having 
approached one of these trees I found several moths already 
hatched out, the most of the maple trees having been destroyed 
by this pernicious insect, which, boring in the bark and sap-wood, 
not only hinders the sap from circulating, but also enfeebles the 
trunk so that it is no es ad able to support the weight of its 
foliage. 

During this summer a dozen of these trees were broken down, 
and the few still standing are in such a condition that I believe 
they will not resist the winds of a second season. This condition 
of things induced me to pay close attention to this insect — study- 
ing its habits and collecting specimens. I failed to find it de- 
scribed in any of the entomological works of the university 
library and I have been informed that Dr. Le Baron, State Ento- 
mologist, was not aware of any Ægerians feeding on the maple 
tree. 


My confidence in this second statement having been reénforced 
by a similar answer of several men of experience that I consulted 
on the matter, I came to the conclusion that this insect is a new 
destroyer and enemy of our best shade tree. I therefore give you 
a description* of this insect, adding what I could observe on its 


*TROCHILIUM ACERICOLUM, n. sp. The female, he perfect insect of this Ægeria, 
measures across saa wings from "13-16 om 15-16 of an spe its wings are transparent. 
Fore wines; the tips yellowish, opaque, with black veins; front margin and fringe 
black; a steel-blue transverse band Br their middle. HIND WINGS with a 


58 GEOLOGY. 


habits in the last two months and a half. It feeds on the inner 
bark and on the sap-wood. When fully fed it spins its cocoon 
near the surface of the outer bark. Early in the morning it makes 
its way out of the cocoon and the very thin layer of bark that 
covers it, leaving the cast skin half emerged from the orifice on 
the trunk, and appearing in a winged state. The females in lay- 
ing their eggs, select the roughest places of any part of the trunk 
—and not of the base only, as the T. exitiosum— where they de- 
posit them one in a place. The larv are found under the bark at 
any time and in all sizes. — P. Grrmapius, Champaign, Ill. 


A spinous Fix 1x a Minnow.—A genus of fishes (Protistius 
Cope) has been recently discovered in the Ecuadorian Andes, 
which in its general structure appears to belong to the bull-min- 
nows (Cyprinodontide). Its head and mouth, however, resemble 
those of a mullet (Mugil) and it has a rudimental spinous dorsal 
fin consisting of a single small spine, which is bound to the back 
by membrane so as to be capable of but little erection. 


GEOLOGY. | 

RETURN or Proressor Marsn’s Expepition.—Prof. O. C. Marsh 
and party returned to New Haven, November 7th, after an absence 
of five months in the Rocky Mountain region and on the Pacific 
Coast. The present expedition had the same object in view as 
those of previous years, viz: a study of the vertebrate fossils of 
the west, especially those of the Cretaceous and Tertiary formations. 
The first explorations this year were made in the Pliocene deposits 


near the Niobrara River. The party fitted out in June at Fort a 


pote spot in the sus * the fore margin; fringe black. TAIL irae tuft) deep 
ge. ve steel-blue; Genneatii, except the second rin 


m 
 metasternum, -yellow. tian isiy sipit oy eee black eyes, 
in the front part of each of which is a white silvery spot. PALPI orange. TONGU 
- distinct, spiral, ‘ots 3-16 of an inch. 
‘The male differs from the female in being somewhat smaller, having the fringe 
brown-golden; ra S oa. above of a lighter steel-blue, inclining to a bronze, and 
beneath of a more intense golden-yellow; hairs of the tail of a steel-blue color half- 


way from the base, and the remaining of paler orange. In a word, he is of a lighter 
color than th e female. 


an inch. 


is whitish, hairy, head brown; length 910 inch and diameter 18 of 


SOI Sete 


MICROSCOPY. 59 


McPherson, Nebraska, and, accompanied by an escort of two 
companies of U. S. Cavalry, proceeded to the Niobrara, and 
worked in that country for several weeks. Owing to hostile In- 
dians, the explorations of the party here were attended with much 
difficulty and danger, but were on the whole quite successful. 
Many new animals were discovered, and ample material secured 
for a full investigation of those previously known from that 
region. ; 


A second expedition was made in August from Fort Bridger, - 


Wyoming, and large collections of Eocene fossil vertebrates were 
obtained, especially of the Dinocerata, Quadrumana and Cheirop- 
tera, which had first been brought to light by the researches of 
the party in previous years. A third trip was made in September 
to the Tertiary beds of Idaho and Oregon, where some interest- 
ing discoveries were made. The party went from Oregon to San 
Francisco by sea, narrowly escaping shipwreck, and then re- 
turned east by rail. On the way, short visits were made to local- 
ities in Colorado and Kansas, to complete investigations begun 
last year. The expedition as a whole was very successful, not 
merely on account of the large number of new animals discovered, 
but also on account of the extensive collections made to complete 
the study of those previously found. All of the collections se- 
cured are now in the museum of Yale College. — 


MICROSCOPY. 

A New Section Currer.—Prof. T. D. Biscoe has contrived a 
new section cutter which is principally adapted for preparing sec- 
tions of soft vegetable tissues and organs, such as leaves, buds, 
ete. It consists essentially of a large glass stage-plate upon which 
the object is fastened, and a movable frame to slide upon this, car- 
rying a razor blade at an adjustable distance from the plate. This 
apparatus cuts sections of objects while they are under observation 
on the stage of the microscope, under powers as high as the 3 inch 
(X 80); and with it Prof. Biscoe has been able to cut series of 
fifteen consecutive sections, each one of which was perfect and the 
average thickness of which was şgyg inch. The following is his 
description of the contrivance. 

“Fig. 41 is a plate that fits on to the stage of the microscope 
with a tight friction, yet so that it has movements of an inch or 


a 


EJ 
60 MICROSCOPY. 


more in any direction, so that the object can be brought into the 
field of view; ais a glass plate held in place by the two pieces 
of wood with screws on the right and left; bis the wooden base 
of the affair with an oval opening for the illuminating apparatus 
to come up; this wooden base being covered on the inner or upper 
side with velvet to make smooth the friction on the under side of 
the stage. For use with a mechanical stage this arrangement is 
modified and much simplified, the large glass plate being merely 
attached to the stage, whose screw movements enable the object 
to be brought into the field of view. On the middle of the upper 
side of the glass plate are cemented four strips of glass as shown, 
just far enough apart to take in a common glass slide which is held 
in place by a couple of wedges of common sheet brass ; and on the 
middle of a slide is fastened the object to be cut, either with gum 


Fig. 41. 


arabic or sometimes with collodion. For holding hard objects like 
wood the arrangements are not ue quite perfected, but no special 
difficulty is expected. 

Fig. 42 gives a perspective view of the triangular wooden frame 
that holds a razor blade, r, whose edge and back come down lower 
than the rest of the frame. By means of the three screws with 
graduated heads the whole frame, razor and all, is raised or low- _ 
ered from the glass plate (a, Fig. 41) on which the triangle rests 
_ and slides with these three screws as its feet. ‘These three sup- — 
porting screws are cut with a thread that counts forty to the inch; 
the screw head is divided into one hundred equal parts, and can be 
_ moved without much difficulty through half of one division, a 
~ a vertical motion of s;4,5 inch to the cutting edge. 4 


MICROSCOPY. 61 


Fig. 43 is a large view of one of the screws, with its indicator. 
The indicator may be a simple pin set in the wooden frame, but 
is more convenient if made movable around the axis of the 
screws, so that when the razor is returned after sharpening they 
may be all turned around to the 0 of their respective screws and 
therefore all read alike while the successive cuts are being made. 
On the side of the indicators are scales which show how many com- 
plete revolutions of the screws have been made. These indicators 
should move quite stiffly, so as not to be accidentally misplaced 
when turning the screw heads. 

With the hands upon the triangle and the eye at the microscope 
tube, the razor can be moved so that its edge shall either make a 
drawing cut or push straight through the object like a chisel, ac- 


Fig. 42. Fig. 43. 


cording as either method or any gradation between them suits best 
the nature of the substance cut. Thus perfectly even slices can 
be cut, and it is quite easy to take them in consecutive order even 
when called off in the midst of the work and compelled to wait 
half an hour before resuming it. It is a luxury to take off slice 
after slice and know that there is no danger of losing just the 
slices you want especially to see. The object is kept wet with 
glycerine, and just as the razor begins to cut, a drop of glycerine 
is pl on its edge in which the slice floats without sticking ; 
though care must be taken in the case of very thin and small sec- 
tions not to lose them in a large drop of glycerine in which they 
would be found with great difficulty. By this method slices gobo 
of an inch in thickness, or rather in thinness, can be all worked 
out nicely, though before it was adopted such thin slices were all 


62 NOTES. 


torn, so as to be unrecognizable. Whether a blade can be made 
to cut any thinner than that has not been tried; but it may be re- 
marked that the first razor blade used gave out at s}55 inch thick, 
and would not take an edge capable of cutting finer than that.” 


NOTES. 

AFTER twenty-seven years of unremitting toil for the advance- 
ment, the exaltation and free spread of science in this country, 
the land of his adoption, Louis Agassiz died, in the ripeness of his 
years, Dec. 14, aged sixty-six. It is not the time now to estimate 
Professor Agassiz’s scientific attainments and compare him with 
his contemporaries, but to mourn the loss of one whose profound 
learning and genius for original research ; whose organizing abili- 
ties, courageous adherence to the dictates of his conscience when 
matters of scientific faith were at stake; whose persuasive elo- 
quence, rare personal magnetism, conspicuous enthusiasm, and 
untiring industry which, though it shortened his life, intensified its 
value, made him one of the remarkable men of the century. 

A student and friend of Humboldt and Cuvier, and enjoying the 
instructions of Oken, Tiedemann and others, he certainly had won- 
derful advantages, and by his native genius and sturdy industry 
made the most of them, his reputation being more than European 
before he was thirty years of age. At the age of thirty-nine he 
came to this country, travelled extensively, and extended his gla- 
cial theory to include both hemispheres. Here he began to build 
up the Museum of Comparative Zoology, his singleness of purposes 
rare personal qualities and disinterested zeal, winning him friends 
and means for carrying on that vast establishment. Meanwhile he 
travelled and lectured over the country ; everywhere by his native 
unaffected eloquence winning men to a just appreciation of the 
objects and needs of science, and elevating and dignifying the 
pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. He was an admirable 
teacher, and introduced new methods of studying zoology. He 
gathered 


based on the spirit of Cuvier, who moulded Agassiz himself in his. 


student days. 


him a number of young men, some of whom were — 
associated with him in the preparation of the material for his great 4 
work, “Contributions to the Natural History of the United — 
States ;” and so powerful was his influence over his students that — 
he may be said to have founded a school in natural history, — 


Ea Se iad he han ode te ee ee SNES 


Ab Ae 


Te aS. eure, Seek Fi Pry haf 


PR Se eae od a 


Speke 


NOTES. 63 


Then came his Brazilian journey, with the immense zoological 
treasures accruing. Hardly resting from this exploration he or- 
ganized the Hassler Expedition around the continent of South , 
America, under the auspices of the Coast’Survey, and recuperated 
his shattered health on that long voyage. Finally, he established, 
with the aia of its liberal founder, the Anderson School of N atural 
History, and it was there in his disinterested labors in behalf of 
improved methods of teaching in our higher and normal schools 
that he undoubtedly overworked himself and lost the strength to 
resist the strain of duties and cares that multiplied during the 
succeeding autumn. 

He died literally in the harness; full of plans for the develop- 
ment of his great museum, for the enlargement and full success of 
the Anderson School at Penekese Island, meanwhile doing origi- 
nal work at the museum, writing a course of articles for the “ At- 
lantic Monthly,” and preparing some papers for this journal ; all 
this, while performing his college duties in the lecture rooms and 
laboratories of the museum, with a course of popular Jectures at 
Washington on his hands, and meanwhile not unmindful of the 
calls of social life. 

Professor Agassiz was perhaps the most widely known and 
popular man in the United States. In his death it may be said 
that science has lost one of its most gifted followers, and humani- 
ty, in his long devotion to all that tends to elevate the race, one 
of its best types. 


Ir will be seen by the following letter, dated San Francisco, Cal., 
Dec. 2, 1873, from Mr. W. H. Dall, that the explorations of 
which he has charge have been quite successful :— 

“We have had a very successful season, though the spring was 
a very late one, and have accomplished more than I dared to hope 
at first. Our work lay in the islands between Attu and the Shu- 
magins. We have visited nearly every point of interest in the 


64 BOOKS RECEIVED. 


ebrated Bogosloff reef, finding 800 fathoms without bottom where | 
it is laid down on the ¢ghart. We found the magnetic variation 
to be less easterly than when the last observations were ta 

During our leisure natural history was not neglected, and we now 
have a magnificent geographical collection, especially in marine 
invertebrates. In birds, too, we did very well, and especially in 
o ce 


as we went west. We got several hundred wood carvings from 
allie about three hundred bone and stone implements and thirty- 
x prehistoric crania and some later ones. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 
oe ee with oe By Edwin Lankester. 12mo,pp.180. 9 pl. G.P. Putnam’s 
ns, New York, 1874, ; 
Schriften der koniglicken phys sikalisch-okonomischen Gesellschaft zu Konigsberg. 4to. Jahr- 
gang 13, Abtheilung 2, Konigsber Tete 
ne $ 


Archiv fur A hropologie, 4to, Bd. vi. Hefi 2. Braunschweig. 872, 
Memoires de la Societe de piira ia el P a votre Naturelle de Gehie. ee T. 22, Geneve, l 
Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou. 8vo. 1873, No. l. Mo 18, 
Bericht uber die Thatigheit d der St, og ee Gesellschaft wahrend des 
einsjahr 1-72, 8yo. St. Ga eek 7 
Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological $ 8vo, Vol. ii, Pt. ii, Edinburgh, 1873. z 
Tillæg til Aarboger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed o¢ 09, | His toire. aaran 1871, Aa arang 1872. (Udgi 
vet af det kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-selskab, Kjobenhavn, 1871, "1872 


D; 
Memoires de la Societe Royale des Antiquaires Fay penra 8vo, 1872. Copenhague. 
On the Origin ane Metam orpaines of deseets. By Sir John Lubbock. 12mo, pp. 108. 6 plates. 
63 woodcuts, on, TE AcMillan & C the 
An n Investigation, concernir the pena sm of the nt icles of Hearing and the Membrane of 
Round Window. By y Charles H. Burnett. 0, pp. New York, 1 i ; 
Catalogue of ih Lowe Fossils, OEE n "Group, Sound at Cincinnati and Vicinity, 
within a range of forty or fifty miles. By U. P. James. a p. 14. Cincinnati, Sept., 1871. 
Bulletin of the A an e P Siege V. 11, 18) 
plementary ete OF jogical Reconnoissance of the State of Louisiana, 
made under teens aus vo of the New Orleans, jpet jawed gei Ss of the Bureau of Immigra: a- 
tion of the State of Louisian and June, 1869, ne W. Hilgard. 8vo, pp. 4% 
New e: 873 
nnua 


4 
Se 
5 
BS 


i avo, ; 
o ecniy fourth Anniat | pols po nthe New Tin k State fe ‘useium of Natural History by the Regents 
State of New York. : 
ort on th 


ori 
, at 
iples of Animal Mechanics, By Samue Rei es ton. 8V0, Vol., PD. 495, 111 Iilustrations. 
h s&C 


ı 1873. 
Zoological Record for 1871. 8v0. vol., pp. saye London, 1873. My Voors 
isi the Extra-tr l North American Species of the Genera Lu a us, Pot silta al 
Œnothera. By ree ag Watson, (Proc, Am, A Arts and Beiras, vol, viii, ua 3, I an 
Re agin hte der physikalisch-medicinischen Societat zu Erlangen. 8vo. Heitd. Er 


n, 1873, 
gr Oe the Extinct Vertebrate Fauna of the Western Territories. By Joseph Leidy. 
bey beg tee 37 io Washington, 1873, Hayden’s Geological Survey U. 8. Ter erent 


of North America drawn from life and uniforml: reduced to one-quarter their Nat- 
ural Size. By Theodore Jasper. pia a ssued A thors A 4 parts Siaa +04. 
eali Americane. By Coe F. Austi 0, pp. Noster, N 
Pa att the Trustees of the ~ ri of r for Isis. B Zoolo a eA bs 
with of t rector r O, . 36. sto! 
Land and fal London, Nov. > ies 73, P cience Monthly. New Yor: 
The. hare. cre N ts London, Nov. 6-Dee. 4, 1873. 
: Ys Ast ov. l= ature. Londo c, 4 
Science Gossip. London, Nov., Dec., 1873. meric Bee Jeurnek Chicago ea 
Acrentifiqu e Paris, Nov. l-Dee. 20, 1873. Naturaliste Canadien. Q ec, Nov., D ia 
yo reg: sso Magazine. London, anadian Entomologist Vol . V, NOS. 
i il, London, $ 
Horticulturist, New York, Novy. Dec., 1873. Proceedi sand Transactions of the 
; ergg at te |e age hy Naturai Sci- tian Paital of Natural y sen 
ence of Mar., Sept., Vol. iii, pt 3, 1872-73. 
a tof Ba oe or oon en of Science and 
= paar ‘any. London, No oe : aven, e 1873. 
ea. London, September, Gardener's Monthly. Philadelphia, Dee,. 15 


and Stream. New York, toe 1, 1874, 


ot BURR > p8 - t 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vol. VIII.— FEBRUARY, 1874.— No. 2. 
COP ORYVOD > 


THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 


BY THEO. B. COMSTOCK, B.S. 


I. ITS SCIENTIFIC VALUE. 

Ir is now generally understood that a bill was passed by the 
4ist Congress, by which the tract of land known as the “ Yellow- . 
Stone National Park” was “reserved and withdrawn from settle- 

“ ment, occupancy or sale under the laws of the United States, and 
dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring-ground for 
the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” 

The writer of this article, having spent some weeks during the 
past summer in the study of the geological features of this remark- 
able region, has visited all its points of interest, and collected 
much material for the elaboration of a report, which is now in 
course of preparation. Dr. Hayden has already led two well 
equipped expeditions into this country,* while smaller parties have 
gathered more or less valuable material concerning the phenom- 
ena there exhibited.t The leaders of all of these expeditions 


* See hore Survey of Regen etc, 1871; also Geological Survey of Mon- 
z and Ul 872. 


: at j th f Cook and Folsom, who as- 

rst H ind Madi Ri 1869: Lieut. G. 
: =S: Cavalry (accompanying Gen. Washbúrn) in 1870, who reported 
briefly to Gen. hasan’ and Capts. Barlow and Heap, U. S. Engineer Corps, whose 
report to Gen. Sheridan was published in 1872. Hon. N. P. Langford, ex-governor of 


Montana, now superintendent of the park, has also published a number of interesting 
PS ar articles concerning its its marvels. 


< se Sin aE a to Act of Cong Librarian of araa a Wr nabs fe srs ets 


66 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 


seem to have been satisfied with the conclusion reached by Colonel 
Wm. F. Raynolds, who, attempting to reach this region from the _ 
head waters of Wind River without success, decided that such a 
route was wholly impracticable. Since 1859, the date of Ray- 
nolds’ expedition, all explorers have taken it for granted that the 
‘sources of Wind River can only be reached from the head waters 
of Yellowstone River, by making a détour so as to cross the Wind 
River mountains through Union pass. Impressed with this idea, 
entrance has heretofore been made from the northward by way of 
forts Ellis and Bozeman in Montana, with the one exception of a 
portion of Dr. Hayden’s command of last year, which entered by 
ascending the valley of Snake River, under the guidance of Mr. 
James Stevenson. It was natural, therefore, that much interest 
should attach to the results attained by an expedition, which took 
the field during the past summer, with the expressed intention of 
solving as much as possible of the mystery overhanging the struct- 
ure of the unexplored territory adjacent to the park on the south 
and east.* The northwestern Wyoming expedition, under the 
command of Capt. W. A. Jones, Chief Engineer of the Department 
of the Platte, after an extended tour of exploration among the 
complicated mountain ridges of the Wind River drainage, entered | 
the park by a new route. Ascending one of the forks of the — 
Stinking Water to its source in the high and rugged volcanic wall 


* The interesting geological results of this expedition are enumerated in an article by i 
the writer, on the Geology of Western Wyoming, in the Amer. Jour. of Sci., Dec., 1873. _ 


that the Stinking Water River, to which I now allude, is an important tributary of the 
ray Horn, and not the mien Water Creek so often mentioned by Hayden, which 
a tributary of Jefferson Fork of p Missouri. Stinking Water River is in Wyo- 
‘aiid, Stinking W alae Ordak tik Meat as. 
While upon this subject I would ok if some measures cannot be adopted to prevent 
this pes o confusion of names. _ Why would it not be wise to substitute, as far a8 
possible of those 


now in use? Certainly the majority of the Indian names are much eferable to their 
English translations g 


ttt the na ‘show the extent of this polynomial evil I have compiled the following 
tof the names of streams, which oceur more than once within a distance of thr 


Powder River 2, Jon ihe ore 2, Téton ma Snake River 2, Sa 5, Cot 

, ge Creek 5, ' aes 
tonwood 3, Muddy 5, Dry Creek 4, Clear Creek 2, Sour C ae “ Deep Creek 2, Spring 
Creek 3, Beaver Creek3, Elk Creek 3, Deer Creek 2, REA paie per Creek 2, Bitter 
iak eare eoa ra bl ater 2. Thus w ixty- ae 


THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 67 


on the east of Yellowstone Lake, a pass was discovered through 
which the pack-train was guided safely, but with considerable diffi- 
culty. This route, though in some respects preferable to the 
present circuitous way of entering the park, is not destined to be 
made available to tourists, owing to the engineering difficulties to 
be surmounted, and the comparatively slight saving in the dis- 
tance. Upon the return of the expedition, however, a very practi- 
cable entrance was discovered, by way of the head of Wind River, 
from the southward. Through this new pass, which Capt. Jones 
has appropriately named 7%6-g0-té,* after our Shoshone guide, a 
railroad may be constructed with little difficulty to connect with 
the Union Pacific at Rawlins, which would sate to tourists from the 
east at least five hundred miles of travel in each direction. This 
would render the park and the Montana settlements readily acces- 
sible, and unlock the rich mineral deposits of the Wind River 
valley and the Sweetwater (Wyoming) mining region. Here also 
a fine agricultural country is awaiting development, and already 
herds of excellent cattle are to be seen grazing in the rich pastures 
of the smaller valleys. 

While traversing that portion of this region now reserved for the 
general public, embracing the greater number of the hot springs 
and geysers, I was very deeply impressed with a sense of the 
immense amount of time and labor which must be spent in inves- 
tigating the various productions and phenomena of the park, ere 
we can unravel its past history or fully interpret its present mani- 
festations. By a most fortunate, though quite accidental dispo- 
sition of my time, I was-enabled to pass through the most inter- 
esting portion of these wonders in such a manner as to witness 
and note a large number of the most striking manifestations in a 
Comparatively short space of time. And yet when I say that I 
could have remained for weeks in the neighborhood of a single 
geyser or spring, watching closely its daily and hourly pulsations 
and eruptions, studying its history, and marking its effects with- 
out oie rele more forcibly than my own ignorance, it will 


: iin nunciation of Indian words I have adopted, as pei as pos- 
sible with ordinary type, the admirable and comprehensive system of C. H. Be- 


rendt, as explained in his paper entitled “ “Analytical Alphabet for the ieee: and 


merican guages,” p 1 Society, New 
tak te. 
hin Tt should be noticed that the the “g” in hs word Das the sound of te gta of 
= ER a Bie he AINE of A in fae Seven jal- 


68 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 


readily be seen that my time was all too brief for the performaaal 
of the work as I desired. 

Much has already been said concerning the benefits to be derived 
by science from the setting aside of this tract of land and the pro- 
tection of its natural features. In fact this was one of the in- — 
ducements offered for the passage of the bill in both houses of 
Congress. Dr. Hayden, in speaking of this bill says, ‘I believe 
it will mark an era in the popular advancement of scientific thought 

' not only in this country, but throughout the civilized world. . 
... This noble deed may be regarded as a tribute from our leg- 
islators to science, and the gratitude of the nation and of men of 
science in all parts of the world is due them for this munificent 
donation.” * 
In this paper I propose to offer some suggestions based upon 
my own experience in the Yellowstone country and adjacent por- 
tions of the Rocky Mountains, tending to show some of the ben- 
efits which, in my opinion, may be made to accrue to science by ; 
the proper use of this grant. The tide of emigration, now fairly 
started on its westward course, is daily seeking new fields for con- — 
quest, and with the abundant treasures stored by nature in the S 
hills and valleys surrounding our park, there can be no question — 
that this territory is destined to become a scene of great activity — 
at no very distant day. The Wind River valley, the greater por- — 
tion of which must be traversed by any highway entering the park — 
from this direction, is remarkably rich in mineral wealth so eX — 
posed as to make its working a problem of the simplest nature- 
In a previous papery I have briefly alluded to this fact in con- — 
nection with a discussion of the prominent geological features- of 4 
this highly interesting section. It is also highly probable that the — a 
once vigorous gold mining interests of South Pass and vicinity 
would be revived by the introduction of sufficient capital, while — 
the markets thus produced would stimulate agriculture in a region — 

very favorable for its successful prosecution. Nor can I doubt 
that the immense deposits of iron, coal, and even oil, will ye be | 
found to be of the very greatest economic value 

In a word, it is my humble opinion that the territories adjacent 

to the national park will ere long be among the most thickly se 
ted Portions of the west, and. that within the next decade or tW0 
{Ont Gono ai Wontene som Wyoming, me ‘our Sei. Dec», 1878. 


THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 69 


we may confidently hope to add to our banner another star repre- 
senting a part of this region. The Montana mining settlements 
are already a fixed fact, and the inhabitants of the whole area al- 
luded to, ever alive to their own interests, are rapidly developing 
the capacities of their soil. Dr. Cyrus Thomas, in his valuable 
and very interesting report to Dr. Hayden in 1871, says* “ It is 
only after a careful examination of a vast number of experiments 
made in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, ete., that I am 
forced to acknowledge what I before did not believe, viz: that 
wherever there is soil in these regions, it is rich in the primary ele- 
ments of fertility.’ Again he remarks,} “As a final illustration, 
I would refer to the efforts of the Mormons on the Rio Virgin, 
along the Arizonian border, where I might truly say, amid basaltic 
hills and drifting sands the desert is being turned into a blooming 
garden. Perhaps amore desolate looking region than the vicin- 
ity of St. George could scarcely have been selected ; yet the ap- 
plication of water shows that here, as elsewhere, the soil is rich in 
the mineral elements necessary to fertility.” 

Much of the area to which I have referred requires no irrigation, 
while the greater portion of the remainder is very favorably situ- 
ated for the easy application of water. On the plains at some dis- 
tance from the mountains this process will be much more difficult 
on many accounts, and yet I do not doubt that even in such situ- 
ations it will be attended with success when systematically prac- 
tised.t é 

I have thus seemingly digressed from my subject in order to 
show that the reservation of 3,600 square miles of that portion 
_ of this area embracing its most remarkable features was well timed, 
in consideration of the destructive tendencies of civilization. 

The following are extracts from the report of the Committee on 
the Public Lands, concerning the bill providing for this reser- 
vation: ‘Persons are now waiting for the spring to open to en- 
ter in and take possession of these remarkable curiosities ; to make 
merchandise of these beautiful specimens; to fence in these rare 


: * Geological Survey of Wyoming and contiguous territory, 1870, p. 194. Washing- 


TI take pleasure te pari the reader to the valuable on of Dr. Thoria, wide 
have been published with those f irrigation is 
fally discussed. 


70 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 


wonders, so as to charge visitors a fee, as is now done at Niagara 
Falls, for the sight of that which ought to be as free as air or water. — 


If this bill fails to become a law this session, the vandals, who are — 
now waiting to enter into this wonder-land will, in a single season, 2 
despoil, beyond recovery, these remarkable curiosities, which have : 
required all the cunning skill of nature thousands of years to pre- 5 
pare.” If such were the danger then, how much greater would it — 
be when the surrounding country had become thickly populated. 

Having thus proven the wisdom of this liberal appropriation, let ‘ 
us turn our attention to a brief review of the main features of the — 
park in its present wild condition 4 

First, as regards the evidences of waning subterranean heat, so 
`- abundantly manifested within the limits of this reservation. It is — 
a remarkable fact that the springs in different localities are widely 
dissimilar in many respects, and even those in the same locality — 
often differ as greatly from each other in some of their character- 
istics. The White Mountain hot springs of Gardiner’s River arè 
a noteworthy example of this, and did there exist no other reason — 
for the formation of a park in this region, the fact that here the 
successive steps in the history of the ancient volcanic action are 


I venture to say that nowhere in our country, not even in the tri 
wonderful cañon of the Colorado, is so much of geological histor 


material. The area within which all this is comprised is 
_ less than ten square miles. Some of the most interesting prod 
-are so delicate, and many of them are formed in situations $ 
a culiar, that frequently the work of years might easily be demoli 
in a very few seconds. It is true that in many cases spoliation 
may be rectified, but there are numerous formations which have 
been and are now progressing so slowly, that the work of a 
lation can tee keep pace with the destructive effects of na 
erosion. _ 
_ And yet this riale section furnishes but a small po 
of the attractions of the park to the scientific observer. Ho 
o Z: pres mud a fumaroles, solfataras and 


THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 71 


rapids, waterfalls and torrents, deep-cut caions and craggy peaks 
abound in every direction; lakes, gorges and cataracts, surprise 
one almost at every turn, and the whole is situated at a point 
where “the grand Rocky Mountain system culminates in a knot of 
peaks and ranges enclosing the most remarkable lake basin in the 
world. From this point radiate the chief mountain ranges, and 
three of the longest rivers of the Fonten, the Missouri, the Co- 
lumbia and the Colorado.” * 

These being preserved by act of Congress, the earnest student 
of nature will always find an abundance of fresh matter for re- 
search in nearly every department of science. Here he will find 
ready to his hands a laboratory of physics in which he may observe 
on a large scale the action of the various forces of attraction and 
repulsion, and new illustrations of the correlation and conservation 
of energy cannot fail to attract his attention. He will find the 
laws of crystallization exemplified in forms novel and instructive, 
and will doubtless witness many new and varied phenomena of 
heat, light and electricity.+ 

The chemist will interest himself in problems of analysis and 
synthesis, in the processes of evaporation, condensation and so- 
lution, and the chemical chsnges incident thereto. To the, bot- 
anist and the vegetable physiologist, the field is open for obser- 
vation and wide experimentation, but there exists, even at this 
‘great altitude, a storehouse of facts bearing upon the distribution 


* Wonders of ep Piles slang edited by James Richardson. New York, Scribner, 
Armstrong & Co., 1 
tIn the wo tn ac RE of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah, 1872, p.1 
Dr. A. C. Peale, a of Hayden’s expedition of that year, Seger a roe 
rset al phe enomen essed, or rather, eeperiane od, by h mself in oompeay 


with 
Gardiner’ 


age 847 of the same ne volame, Mr. Henry Gannett ies describes this ‘ 
ents “ A thunder-shower was approaching as we neared the ann of = 
meuni T wan above the others of the party, -300 when about fifty feet below the 
summit t ga g y body. At first I felt nothing, but 
heard a sparks from a friction machine. 
Immedia beset after, I acs to feel a tingling or pricking anise $ . = ig D the 
ends of my fingers, which, ached 
the oe the noise, which had not changed its character, was rar aia my hair 


stood completely on end, while the tingling, vas absolutely painful. 


_ Taking off my hat a ved it. I started down again, and met the others 
twenty-five or thirty feet belo the summit. They were affected aitary, bnt in a 
less di degree. One ears +e 

ig Toe ie received quite a severe shock, y which felled him as ith na had pesn We 
t this poin 


: herd an th sete. 


« 


72 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 


a geological standpoint, I can, from my own experience, promise 
the enthusiastic student of our earth’s history a view at once so 
complete and so overwhelming as to enchain his whole attention. 


be made a really valuable laboratory and conservatory of science 
at little cost and without detriment to an y of the interests before 
mentioned. E 
Momentous questions are now agitating the scientific world, 
calling for experiment and observation which are daily becoming 
less possible, owing in a great measure to the obliterating infi 
ences of modern civilization. Thus it would almost seem that t 
present difficulties in the way of the solution of many questions, 
bearing upon the process of natural selection, will soén become 
insurmountable if some means are not employed to render more 
practicable the study of animals in a state of nature. 
I have not space to treat this subject as it deserves, but for 
and other reasons, I desire to call attention to what appears to 
one of the most important uses to which the park can be pu 
viz. : the. preservation from extinction of at least the character 


THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 73 
now in progress in our western wilds, the zodlogical record of to-day 
must rapidly pass into the domain of the paleontologist. I select 
for my purpose only the more prominent of the many examples 
which might be given of animals in the west, which are rapidly 
becoming extinct through the agency of man—directly or indirectly 
at the hand of civilized man. 

The American bison (Bos Americanus Gmelin), according to 
Riitimeyer, is identical with Bison priscus of the British palæo- 
lithic or drift deposits. The European aurochs (Bos bison or 
Bison Europeus) eannot be specifically separated from the latter, 
(B. priscus), however, for it is possible to trace the gradations 
between them. Sir J. Lubbock asserts that “the American form 
of bison is the more archaic.”* It is, perhaps, somewhat remark- 
able that an ancient genus containing forms so well suited to 
supply man with many of the comforts and luxuries of life, should, 
notwithstanding the better adaptations produced by domestication 
and careful breeding, still be so well represented by members in 
a wild state.; The aurochs is now nearly extinct, but some are 
found in the Carpathian Mountains and the marshy forests of 
Poland, while it is said to be represented by a few individuals in 
western Asia, in the neighborhood of Mount Caucasus. Several 
hundred were for a long time carefully preserved by the emperor 
of Russia, in the forests of Lithuania, but little is now generally 
known concerning them, and it is to be feared that they are there 
nearly or quite exterminated. 

The urus (Bos primigenius), according to one historian; existed 
in Switzerland as late as the sixteenth century. 

The American bison formerly ranged over a very large portion 
of this country east of the Rocky Mountains, extending even to 
the Atlantic, and southward into Mexico. In 1862, according to 
Baird, “its main range was between the upper Missouri and the 
Rocky Mountains, and from northern Texas and New Mexico to 
Great Martin Lake in latitude 64° N.”§ This was equivalent 
to an area of 1,500,000 Ten miles. To-day they roam over 


+ Prehistoric Timies, 1960, 
_ | Besides the American bison oe the aurochs there are now existing wild in India, 


ee (Bos bubalus Linn), and the arnee (B. arni coats in southern Africa, the 


Cape (B. j; 
a: 3 and i in the Malayan Annies A me weng (B.S 


- 


among the bones from Kent’s Cavern, and by Dr. Falconer s 


74 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 


portions of this wide region, but the great railroads seem to — 
present impassable barriers, which cause them to be distributed | 
in lots, as it were, between them. I believe it to be a fair estimate 4 
to allow them a present range, all told, of not more than 500,000 — 
square miles, a reduction of one million square miles in twelve 
years. Granting the possible fact that the reduction in numbers 

may be in smaller proportion, and allowing for errors in the cal- 
culation, there can be little doubt that in the next ten years this race 
will become extinct, at the present rate of destruction. 

The wolverine (Gulo luscus) also represents an ancient type, 
found in the bone caves of England and Belgium. It is liable to 
rapid extinction on account of the value of its fur. ; 

The Rocky Mountain grizzly bear (Ursus horribilis Ord.) is 
found by Mr. Buck* to be osteologically identical with remains 
occurring in ancient British deposits of Post-tertiary age. This 
species is, perhaps, not yet scarce enough to need protection, as — 
it is mainly confined to mountainous regions, and the flesh is not 
greatly in demand. It is a question, however, whether its skin 
will not be more frequently sought in consequence of the disap- 
pearance of the bison, or bufialo. 

The American beaver (Castor Canadensis), hunted alike for i 
skin and its anti-civilization propensities, is a distant relativ 
Castoroides Ohiensis of the American’ Post-tertiary. Its lim 
as with other animals, have been much curtailed by the advance 
of civilized man. It-is worthy of preservation for its pec 
_ habits, which need no description. 

The tailless hare, or lagomys, represented in the Rocky 
Mountain region by the little chief hare (L. princeps Rich), ~ 
_ genus now confined to the Himalayas, Siberia, and the 
regions of North America, has been identified by Prof. 


| those from the Brixham Cave.” + 


repres ntative of the Post-tertiary period. Though, at p! 

quite abundant i in this country, it is doubtful whether it can 
withstand the assaults of the hunter, even with the existe! 
— parma, laws. The same remark will apply with 


ae Ser ES nein 1 307. 


THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 75 


greater force to the black-tail (Cervus Columbianus Rich), and 
the cotton tailed deer (C. leucurus Douglas), the prong-horn 
antelope (Antilocapra Americana Ord), and particularly to the 
mule deer (Cervus macrotis Say) which is occasionally met in this 
region. I might also add, with equal propriety, the mountain 
sheep or big horn (Ovis montana Cuvier) and the various game 
members of the Rodentia, as well as, in fact, all the game birds of 
this region, including the ducks, geese, grouse, ete. 

The mallard (Anas boschas Linn.) is the only bird of antiquity 
included in this fauna, remains of this species having been taken 
from the principal lake dwellings of Switzerland. 

There are numerous other animals which might be included in 
this protective scheme, without interfering in the least with any 
plans for the best improvement of the park, and, what is, perhaps, 
of as much importance to our practical friends to whose influence 
we must look for its furtherance, without any serious addition to 
the burden of expense.* All of these animals are more or less 


*The following partial list comprises only the more important of the mammals and 
birds observed by myself during the past summer came of those already men- 
tioned), with some few additions from the report of Mr. C. H. Merriam, Zoologist of 
me Pre ee ie 1n s pe Foss Jan ote expedition of 1872, in order to include a 


ALS. 
Felis concolor Linu.—Cougar: Feber ve : Catamount A ga Gray Woli. 
-. ĵ Var. griseo a —Wh 
a occidentalis, Í var AnA Say- -Dnsky y Wolf. 
y rie 


Taridea Americana Wa Waterh—Ame rican Badger, 


Ursus Americanus Pala 1 re 


-Prai 
Cynomys GOIN D: oa, er Tailed Br airie ies 
Aretonms Ravi viventer Bach.—Y eliow-footed Marm 
Fiber zi ‘hicus Cuvier. vier.—Muskrat 
Brinicen ¢ pe paint Brandt. cllow-hairea Porcupine: 
Lepus Townsend endit Bach.—Jackas' ares 


‘dit Haye Gray Rabi. Rabbit. (“One very curious fact relating to Tapa 

orn dii fs that al ‘he mates hove tenia and eh ah 
ERRIAM.) I have never me ht Wapiti 

TTO i ene Elk; Wap 


1 k; hence this 
meena duties were too pressing to alow of any ornithologieal wor ; 
Falco e 


76 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 


liable to rapid extermination by reason of their value to man. 
None of them need be considered dangerous when unmolested, and, 
in fact, the same may be said of the whole fauna of this region, 
without exception.* It is only when wounded, or pressed by the 
severest hunger that any one with ordinary presence of mind 
need fear to meet the most powerful of these brutes, entirely 
unarmed.f 

Thirdly, we have here, and may retain without the necessit; 
protective measures, a large number of invertebrate animals whose 
habits are little known, and whose structure has scarcely b | 
investigated, and this remark will apply as well to the lower 
members of the vertebrate series. There is, perhaps, much reason : 
to look for a peculiar fauna in this restricted region, both on 
account of its altitude and its comparatively isolated position, as Í 
well as the severity of the climate at certain seasons of the yont 


Buteo calurus Cassin a nd Black Haw k. 


Athene hypogxa Bonap Burrowing Ow : Prairie Owl. 
Picus Harrisii Aud.— Harris’ Wood nae 

Pie alis Baird.—Strip Dtree taod W oonpeckor. 
Sphyropicus ruber Baird: —Rer-breasted V pe ie 
Melanerpes erythrocephalus Sw.—Red-h a Woodpe cker. 
Ceryle alcyon Boie.—Belted Kingfisher. 

Tur i orius Linn.—Ro 


edus mi p 

Sialia arctica Sw.—Rocky Mountain Bluebird 
Agelaius pheniceus Vieill.—Red-winged Blackbird, 
Pyranga Ludoviciana Bona Se isiana Tanag 


ommo 
Corvus carnivorus Bart. ET peaniagan Raven 
Pica Hudsonica Bonap.—M 
Iduri  Carolinensis s earar aa RAS Dove, 

- Tetrao riala Say.— Dus a ki Cock of thé Pe i 
Centrocer ereus urophasianus: aoe e Coc! ock of t ans. 
Bonasa umbellus, $ Baird —Gra: y Mountain Grouse. 

caw Aesar 
D Boe ian mr ae ed Teal 
Vettion | reen-winged Teal. 
cacy = Pelecanus erythrorhyneus Gun —American Pelican. 

n _ *I make this statement — bead although I have repea K 
attacks from pred: country and in Brazil, — the blac 

even the 


reih peri 
rvation, by itself, is geg eon vidas: ‘bak bn ave based my fender rs pe 
"pon upon the e whose sie conmgenti of the habits of these ani 
ae ws tary ba ai hen : 
__ $The lowest ‘Point within the Itmite ae a park is probably at at the mouth 
> sea level, and this is quite e: onal, 
< Yellowstone Lake has i 


THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. T 


It is interesting to observe, however, that a very large propor- 
tion of the animals here discovered belong to species of wide 
range, or, if more local in their distribution, they frequently rep- 
resent districts far removed. But perhaps the most remarkable 
feature of this distribution is that we find here living, apparently 
under quite similar conditions, representatives of peculiarly 
southern and peculiarly northern types, with some representatives 
of Pacific types.* This opens to view at once a wide field for 
observation upon the habits and economy of a large number of the 
diversified group of insects. 

The stridulation of insects, and the various sexual variations 
and appendages, may all be here studied to the very greatest ad- 
vantage. I might give from my own notes upon these and other 
subjects, taken while deeply engaged in arduous duties of another 
nature, many interesting observations which, in many cases, I was 
absolutely compelled to make, so abundant was the material every- 
where present. 

Fourthly, there would be much to say upon many subjects 
connected with the botany of this region, were it not that its elu- 
cidation has been intrusted to much abler minds than mine. Pre- 


7,800 ft., and th ks wh ititude i ly or quite 10,000 ft., while 


3 J 


te ing the summer months the climate is mild and even cb in the daytime, but in 

clear weather the nights are very cold and frosts are not uncommon. This is due to 

En eine radiation, which, during cloudy nights is, of c rata much less, and the 
mperature conseque å. 


pe full discussion of this very in teresting subject would be out of place in an 
f thi 


si e 
that, while this portion of country is hemmed in on al) sides by high snow-clad walls, 
itis yet the main centre or heart of the aqueous circulation of a vast territory. The 
river channels of the sources of the Missouri, the Columbia, and the Colorado, cut 
through the otherwise impregnable rim of this basin, affording alike an outlet to the 
rains and melted snows, sad an inlet to the insects and other animals which may by 
any means be forced to anter- Thus we may find, at the point from which their sources 
diverge, a few o! f the lower se 
leys Of these. rivers. Were there no barriers of wy kind between these points, w 

p which had sae 

i limated here o: E span eiei along the valleys _ 

of the ot other rivers. The facts show, however, that the representatives | of distant dis 
Park ; 


The natural conclusion, then, is that such park species are the — of acciden- 
tally introduced 


specimens which were hardy enough or fortunate enough to have com- 

plet rier g destroyed in transitu. The great barrier, 
this case, ked by Di Py l believe to be the great plains which inter- 
vene between the head tia lleys of th —— EEE RS perhaps, 


intestinal cavity of civilized man as one of its habitats, but 1 


78 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 


mising that Dr. C. C. Parry acted as the botanist of the north- 4 
western Wyoming expedition of 1873, I will only add that his ob- — 
servations prove that the rewards of research in that department 
are no less promising than in other fields. 

Fifthly and lastly, there is one young but active science —mi- 
croscopy, — which has as yet scarcely entered this field, but which, 
I firmly believe, will discover within the limits of the Park most 
valuable treasures. The act of Congress providing for this reser- 
‘vation insures the preservation of the greater portion of whatever 
may be available for this purpose. 

Among the most interesting objects for the microscope, will be 
found the colloidal and filamentous products of the hot springs,” 
the minute vegetable and animal life of both hot and cold springs, 
the animal and vegetable parasites, and the numerous crystalline - 
deposits of the hot springs and geysers. 

Yellowstone Lake, in many places near its borders, is so com- 
pletely filled with a soft greenish substance in small pellets, t that it 
is impossible to dip a cupful of the water without including hun- — ; 
dreds of them. They are apparently of vegetable origin, a 
careful microscopical investigation is needed to determine their ul 


hese oR EE = oes ee ee beet 


timate structure. Whether this green matter has anything to do 


nection.{ The whole saboc ‘of intestinal ae is extremel 3 
interesting, and this particular case is, on many accounts, more 
than ordinarily so. The successive stages in the development 0 

this species, and the conditions necessary to its metamorphose’ 
have never been studied. I can only say that I do not regard Hey 


extended observation of its habits may prove the contrary- ‘ 
It would be a pleasant task to continue my subject much fa y 
but T feel that I have vnin all that is needed to prove the 


*Tuse the terms rr gene RE Ney ges Ne AE Sa x RN PTI PIS the bo 
springs, concerning the nature of which little is known. 
£ 


aya si ci + ih uae 
t Hayden states (ibid., p. 97) that these parasites are found only in the trout ta 
above the Upper Falls of Yellowstone River. This observation is, in the me : 
but I have met them, though rarely, in those of East Fork, which leads me T 
that they may occur in the main river below the falls. It is probable, I think, oe : 
itat is preéminently the lake. -o 


STRUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF THE BRONTOTHERIDZE. 79 


tific value of the Yellowstone Park. At the same time, I am con- 
fident that I have in no degree over-estimated its value to science, 
but, on the contrary, I have been obliged to omit mention alto- 
gether of many points which might add greatly to the interest in 
this section of country, for lack of space to record them. 

If anything which I may have said shall in any way aid in de- 
veloping an interest in our park, or in any of the special depart- 
ments of science which can there be best prosecuted with success, 
I shall be well repaid for my effort. 

It must be remembered, however, that at present everything in 
this region is in a crude state, and it will be necessary to introduce 
gradually the requisite appliances for work, and means for the ac- 
commodation, transportation and sustenance of those who desire 
to work in this field. These will all come in due time, as the av- 
arice of man leads him to discover these demands for his commod- 
ities, and in the meantime we may congratulate ourselves that the 
work of destruction is stayed. 

I do not propose here to offer any suggestions nor to put for- 
ward any plans for the furtherance of scientific investigation ; my 
purpose is accomplished if I have succeeded in making a lucid 
statement of the real facts of the case. In an article to appear in 
the succeeding number of the Narurauist, it is my intention to 
enter more fully into the subject of the best methods for the 
improvement of this tract. 


ON THE STRUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF THE 
BRONTOTHERID&.* 


PLATES I, II. 


BY PROFESSOR O. C. MARSH. 


Tue Miocene deposits on the eastern slope of the Rocky Moun- 
tains contain the remains of a group of gigantic mammals, of 
much interest, which have been named by the writer, Brontother- 
ide. Although these animals ` are less remarkable than the 


* Published in part in the Amer. Jour. of Sci., vol. vii, Jan., 1874. 
N aa 1873. 


80. STRUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF THE BRONTOTHERID, 


Dinocerata of the Eocene,* which they seem to have replaced, they 
equalled them in size, and resembled- them in several important 
features, notably in the structure of the feet, and in having the 
head armed with a pair of powerful horns. The general structure 
of the group, however, clearly indicates that they do not belong 
in the order Dinocerata, but should be placed with the Perisso- 
dactyls, in which they form a well-marked family. 
The more prominent characters of this family were pointed out 
by the writer in describing Brontotherium gigas Marsh, the typ 
species, and others had been previously mentioned by Dr. Leidy. 
in his descriptions of Titanotherium Proutii.+ The skull of 
latter genus is not known, but there can now be no reasonab 
doubt that it was furnished with horns, in some respects similar 
to those of Brontotherium (plates i and ii). The possibility 
this was originally suggested by Dr. Leidy,t and in his latest wor 
he has figured a horn-core from the same deposits which yielde 
the Titanotherium remains. The fragmentary specimen 
scribed by Dr. Leidy as Meyacerops Coloradensis|| probably belongs 
in the same family, but until additional remains are found thi 
point cannot be decided. The supposed genera Symborodon and 
Miobasileus, recently indicated by Prof. Cope (vii, p. 723), bele 
to this group. The former is generically identical with Bron 
therium, the reputed absence of lower incisors being evidently d 
as shown below, either to age, or to imperfect specimens. 
basileus is apparently the same genus, and hence both nan 
should be regarded as synonyms of Brontotherium. ; 
Among the more marked characters of the Brontotheridæ, W 
readily distinguish them from the Rhinocerotide, apparently 
-~ near allies, may be mentioned the following :— There are 
Short and thick toes in the manus, and three in the pes. 
‘Skull supports a pair of large horn-cores, placed transversely, 

_ in modern Artiodactyls.€ There are well developed canine te 
_ in both jaws. The molar teeth, above and below, are not oft 
Rhinoceros type, but resemble those of Chalicotherium. 


* AMER. NAT., vol. vii, p. 146, March, 1873. 
Mammalia, p. 206, 1869. 


§ Extinct Vertebrate Fauna, pl. xxviii fig. 3, 1873 oe 

me Poi Se ; p , a 
l a Phil. Acad., 1870, p. i, and Extinct Vertebrate Fauna, p. 239. 
_ _ 1 Rhinoceros pleuroceros Duy., m the Miocene of France, has a transverse P 
_ Small horn-cores on the nasals, not unli je in Dinoceras, R. minutus 


STRUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF THE BRONTOTHERIDA. a 


The general characters of the Brontotheride are fully shown in 
a large series of specimens in the Yale College Museum. -The 
cranial structure of Brontotherium, the type genus, is well illus- 
trated in the nearly perfect skull of B. ingens Marsh, figured in 
plates i and ii. The only other genus of the group known with 
certainty is Titanotherium of Leidy (Menodus Pomel) which, ac- 
cording to the descriptions of that author, differed essentially in 
having four lower premolars, and in the absence of a third tro- 
chanter on the femur. Less important differences are seen in the 
composition of the teeth, and in the diastema between the upper 
canine and first premolar. 
The skull in Brontotherium is elongated, and resembles in its 
general features that of Rhinoceros. The occipital region is 
greatly elevated, and deeply concave posteriorly. The brain cavity 
is unusually contracted. ‘The top of the skull is concave longitu- 
dinally, and convex transyersely (plates i and ii). The zygo- 
matic arches are massive, and much expanded. The orbit is-small, 
and continuous with the elongated temporal fossa. ‘The nasal 
bones are greatly developed, and firmly coossified. -They support 
entirely, or nearly so, the large divergent horn-cores. Their ante- 
rior extremities are produced, and overhang the large narial orifice., 
The premaxillaries are diminutive, and do not extend forward 
beyond the end of the nasals. The palate is deeply arched above, 
especially between the premolars. The posterior nares extend 
forward nearly to-the front of the last molar. The Jachrymal — 
forms the anterior margin of the orbit. The malar extends for- 
ward beyond the lower margin of the orbit. The infra-orbital 
foramen is very large, and situated well forward. The zygomatic 
process of the squamosal is elevated, and incurved above. There 
_ is a massive post-glenoid process, and a large and somewhat shorter 
Paroccipital process (plate i). The post-tympanic process of the 
Squamosal is large, and quite external to the paroccipital process. 
The occipital condyles. are very large, and well separated. 
~ The mandible has a wide condyle, and a slender coronoid 
‘process. The angle is rounded, and slightly produced downward, 
a The symphysis is depressed, e AERES, very shallow in i frois, and 
~ Completely ossified. a 
on desc formula of : e toti 


ium is as Sia :— 


n f ropa . The 
mall. The « _ and stout, 


: _ the Proboscidians. The caudal vertebrae preserved indicate 
oy and slender tail. 

_ D Teao those of the elephant and the rhinoceros. The 

o is stout, and its entire distal end is occupied by the arti 


ulna has its olecranon portion much compressed. -Its distal ¢ 
: ee much smaller than in Rhinoceros, and has no articular fac for 


82 STRUCTURE ami AFFINITIES OF THE BRONTOTHERIDÆ. 


id placed near the first premolar. The latter is proportiona 
much larger than the corresponding tooth in Titanothert 
The upper premolars have all essentially the same struct 
viz: two external connate cusps, with their outer faces ne 
plane, and two inner cones closely united. The anterior cone 
connected with the opposite outer cusp by a transverse ridg 
which has behind it an elongated depression, more or less divi 
by projections from the outer posterior cusp. In the upper 
molars, the external cusps have their outer surfaces deeply 
cave; while the inner cones are low and separate. The lower ii 
cisors were small, and eyidently of little use. The two next 
symphysis were separated from each other. ‘One specimen in ti 
Yale Museum has the crown hemispherical in form. The low 
incisors are frequently wanting, and in old animals the alv 
may, perhaps, disappear. Careful examination, however, 
usually show indicatións of them. The lower canine is of mo 
ate size, and separated from the premolars by a short diaste 
The lower molars are of the Palæotherium type, and agree esse 
tially with those of Titanotherium. | 
The head in Brontotherium was declined when in its natural 
sition. The neck was stout, and of moderate length. The 
vical and most of the dorsal vertebree are distinctly opisthoce 
The atlas is large, and much expanded transversely. The axis 
massive, and has its anterior articular faces much broader tha 
the Dinocerata. The odontoid process was stout, and ¢ 
The transverse process was small, and apparently imper 
. The posterior articular face is concave, and oblique.. The ej 
yses of the vertebree are, loosely united in most specimens 


_ The limbs of the Brontotheride were intermediate in pr 


oe on cavity is shallow, and the condylar ridge sim 
that of the elephant, but not continued so far up the shaft- 


‘The radins esd stont, and its distal end expa 


ZAR locking series. The y are shor 
p : rt four well developed toes of n 


- 


STRUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF THE BRONTOTHERIDZ. 83 


size. The metacarpal bones are shorter than those of the Rhi- 
noceros, the first phalanges longer, and the second series shorter. 
The ungual phalanges are short and tubercular, as in the elephant. 

The femur has a small third trochanter, and its head a deep pit 
for the round ligament. At the distal end, the anterior articular 
surface is narrow, and the two edges are of nearly equal promi- 
nence, as in the tapir. There is a small fossa on the posterior 
side above the outer condyle. .The tibia is stout, and has a dis- 
tinct spine. The fibula is entire, but quite slender. The astrag- 
alus is shorter than in the , rhinoceros, and the superior groove 
more oblique. The cuboid face is larger than in Rhinoceros. The’ 
navicular has its distal facets subequal. There were three toes of 
nearly equal size in the pes, the first and fifth being entirely 
wanting. 

The ug known species of this group is Brontotherium ingens 


Marsh, which is represented in the Yale College Museum by a 


skull, nearly perfect, and other characteristic remains. The speci- 
mens preserved indicate that the animals to which they pertained 
nearly or quite equalled the elephant in bulk, and far exceeded in 


size any known Perissodactyls living or fossil. 


The skull in the type specimen of the species is well Tene 
in the accompanying plates, and its general characters have already 
been given. It is three feet in length, and twenty-two inches 
across the zygomatic arches. The most striking peculiarity of this 
cranium is the pair of huge horn-cores on the nasals. They are 
about eight inches in length, and extend upward and outward. 
They are triangular at the base, with the broadest face external. 
The two inner faces of each core are separated by a ridge, which 
is continued to the median line. The upper part of the horn-cores 
is rugose, and the base contains large air cavities. The free ex- 
tremities of the nasals are codssified, and nfuch elongated. They 
are rounded in front, slightly decurved, and the surface at the end 
is rugose. The orbit is of moderate size, and looks forward, out- 
ward and upward. The lachrymal foramen is small, and ovate in 
outline. The infra-orbital foramen is unusually large. There is 
no post-orbital process. The zygomatic arches are massive, and 
the squamosal portion widely expanded. The temporal fossa ex- 
tends far backward, and has over its posterior portion an obtuse 


Tidge. The occipital condyles are Eon S wide: apart, and 


extend slightly oe the —— eh The paroc- 


EE eann 


84 STRUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF THE BRONTOTHERIDE. 


cipital process of the ERT is elongate, and its anterior face 
concave. The post-glenoid process is very large, much extended P 
transversely, and is longer than the paroccipital process. i 

‘The premaxillaries in this cranium are imperfect, and the in 
cisors wanting. The canines, also, are not entire, but- they were 
only of moderate size, and in close proximity to the first pr emolar.. — 
This tooth had two fangs, and resembled the other premolars. All _ 
of these have a strong inner basal ridge. The crowns are more — 
nearly square than in Titanotherium Proutii Leidy. The upper 
true molars are very large, the last especially so. It resembles the | 
corresponding tooth in T. Proutii, but the inner posterior angle of 
the crown is much more developed. : . 

The limbs in this species were shorter than those in the existing _ 
elephants, which, in form of body, it- doubtless resembled. Le 
huge divergent horns, and the absence of tusks, gave the head a 
very different appearance. ‘The wide narial opening, the rugosè 
extremities of the nasals, and the very large infra-orbital foramen, 
naturally suggest that there must have been an elongated, flexible — 
- nose, possibly ag extensive as in the tapir. That there was 
long proboscis, as in the elephant, is indicated with equal certainly 
by the length of the head and neck, which renders such an 0 
unnecessary. : 

This species bears some ee ee to Brontotherium trig mi 
ceras (Symborodon trigonoceras Cope), but differs widely in ‘size, 
having been nearly or quite twice as large in bulk. The ne 
also, are very differently placed; the nasals are more elongai e 
and not emarginate at their extremities; the premaxillarie 
not prohinent s the = are meaty expanded ; an 

! rbital process. a 
3 SAN 


ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE SOUTH. 85 


processes on each ramus of the mandible; the cervical vertebrie 
flat; the femur without a third trochanter ; and an additional toe 
in each foot. 

Among the features which this group shares with the Probos- 

cidea may be mentioned: the superior extension of the condylar 
ridge of the humerus; the short thick toes; and the late union of 
the epiphyses with the centra of the vertebrae. The last character » 
appears to belong especially to mammals of very large size, and 
probably indicates late maturity, and great longevity. 
_ The preceding description makes it evident that the Bronto- 
theridæ constitute a very distinct family of the . Perissodactyla. 
While retaining some prominent features of their Eocene prede- 
cessors, the Dinocerata, they are more nearly related to the 
Rhinoceros family, and at the same time they have some char- 
- acters allying them to the Proboscidea, which ee them in the 
succeeding, Pliocene period. 

All the known remains of the Brontotiona are frou east of 
the Rocky Mountains, in the Miocene beds of Dakota, Nebraska, 
` Wyoming and Colorado. The specimens here described are 
mainly from localities in the “Bad Lands” of Colorado, which 
were discovered and explored by the writer in the summer of 
1870.* 

EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 


Plate i. Brontotherium ingens Marsh. Side view. One-sixth natural sıze. ` 
Plate ii. Brontotherium ingens Marsh. Top view. One sixth natural size. ‘ 


ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE SOUTH. 


BY C. H HART MERRIAM. ' 


ita FLORIDA. 8 
TR was in Florida but a few days and aie most of the 
ew opportunities were a r de l satisfactory notes 
l e to the breeding habits, ete., of many of the birds observed 
there. The route followed was up the St. John’s river to Palatka 
and ana hence up its ee tributary, the Ocklawaha Hr. for a 


oi * Amer. Jour. Sci. vol. iv p. 2023, Sept 1870. : 


86 ORNITHOLOGICAL, NOTES FROM THE SOUTH. 


distance of two hundred and seventy-five miles, to a Place called 
** Okahumkee,” at the head of navigation. 
For.the first hundred and fifty miles the country on each side of 
.the river is thickly wooded, the forests consisting mainly of cy- | 
press and palmetto trees: the undergrowth is very dense, and, 
. together with the long and numerous prickly vines, forms an almost 
` impenetrable jungle. To make matters still worse for the collector, 
nearly the whole country is an immense swamp, and it is very 
seldom that you see’a little knoll rise above the level of the sur- . 
rounding débris. This is, of course, the home of innumerable 
' birds and a comparative paradise for the ornithologist. ie 
For the remaining hundred and twenty-five miles the river runs — 
through a vast and almost unbroken savanna: here it widens 
into two good sized lakes, known as lakes Griffen and Harris. i 
A cypress or live oak is occasionally met with on this part of the . 
river; if so, its branches (like. those of the other forest trees) are — 
adorned with large quantities of parasitic moss ( Tillandsia usne- : 
‘oides), which hangs i in graceful festoons to the water’s edge. 
Several miles back from the river (and often not so far) dry 
land rises out of the water and is covered with pine trees. Alli- ; 
gators are quite numerous about the river, voh in the wooded 
portions and in the savannas. 
The following i is a list of birds met with during this excursion 


. 
Re D ne eT 


_ Planesticus Peipin Baird (Common Robin). Not very common. A few 
he St. John’s river. Probably breeds. z and 
fader gota Boie — ocking Bird). Very common about the St. John’s river 


Tm 
La 


(Tufted Ti ). Quite common at Green Cove $ 


about the veal and at Okahumkee. ae 
ee Latham (Brown-headed Nuthatch). Very commo n at Green Cove $ 
the St. John’s; ais vidio numerous at Okahumkee. Gregarious. Theys 
os be c confined almost oo. to sop pine swamps and barrens, "a 
ne: m 


0 ! a 
_ color as the rest of the upper parts instead of brown; the white spot bese? g 

is also very igdistinct. Their note is very peculiar and is entirely d ‘i 

that of any of the other nuth thatches. Tn habits, they resemble | a? 


peepee ge ihe large Ses. They also resemble the other 


wak Carolina Wren). Not uncommon | a pe 


€ Breeds. ~ 
a varia Yall. Black a 1 White Creeper). Not common about the” 
and on the Ocklawaha. : 
| armen amp cae Yellow-backed Warbler). Common abont t 
P z 


ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE SOUTH. 87 


Protonotaria a Baird (Prothonotary aon Quite numerous in the ris ~ 
densely wooded swamps of the lower Ocklaw 
chiapas ech Cab. (Maryland Yellow-throat). EnF about the St. John’s and 
e lower Ocklawaha. 
Douara eæruleseons Baird (Black-throated Blue Warbler). Common on the lower 
Ocklawah 


Dendræca pinus selva ipine-creepi ng Warbler). Common at Green Cove Spring and 
eh humkee. Breeds early; fully-fledged young obtained on the 15th of April 
ees a discolor Baird = airie Wa rbler). Common at Green Cove Spri 
PrE aae NRN Sw. a an Redstart). PPs on lower Ocklawaha. 
Hirundo hor m Barton yee Swallow). seen about the St. John’s. 
reni aipat aise Baird y praeina me E Eala, Not uncommon about 
ohn’s. 
Vireo ERE E Vieill. (Red-eyed Vireo). Common at Oka hu 


= 
=- 


gger 
e many other birds. They are most numerous in the 
undergrowth (when there is any) in the pine regions, and I never saw one in the 


mps. 
Pina æstiva Vieill. (Vermilion Tanager; spana = Bird). Observed only at 
Okahumkee, where it was not uncommon. It wa shy bird and was generally 


detected se its pleasant song, and was usually pba es in si top of some pine. 
E D S eus Baird (Grass ear Bay-winged Bunting). Not uncommon 
abou é. John’s and at Okahu 
Junco Grea hs (Black or Common me rd). a Cove Spring. 
Spizella socialis Bonap. cCuspring Sparrow). he a Green Cove aaa a at 
Okahumkee 


— ncbodia Baird (Song Sparrow). Common on the St. John’s 
ee Dai irginianus Bonap - (Cardinal Grosbeak). Very common all about the St. 
sand Ocklawaha. Breeds 
Pills ersthrophtiaimas, v var. Alleni Coues White-eyed Chewink). Very common 
he St. John’s and Ocklawaha, also Okahumkee. Breeds. 
malin us ae Vieill. (Red-winged Blackbird). Common in the large marshes on 
the upper Ockl awaha. reeds. 
Sturnella magna Sw. (Meadow Lark). Common about Okahum 
Quiscalus major Vieill. (Boat-tailed Grackle). ver numerous ve the large savan- 
: nas of the upper Ocklawaha.. Several 
Corvus ossifragus Wilson (Fish Crow). Common on the St. John’s and Ocklawaha. 
Cyatura cristata Swainson (Blue Jay). Common about the St. John’s and at Oka- 
humkee. Breeds. It differs very Sopela raay from our northern blue jay in 
t da $ 


of beihg “broadly tipped with white,” are Rivas tip with it and on some of 
— secondaries the white is aise ed perceptible: the white band on the tip of 
tail is also much narrower d almost ve on the fourth and neh 
fentners. The black bands on ihe he wings and t 

are much less distinct and do not reach me shafts of the feathers. I will now 
giv re comparative m th 


New York (Lewis Co) a y e r. 
Loc tity. Io o 1 pas wail teas | Length | Extent. | Wing. | Tait. 
Sem New York. -|pec.25,182. | fad. | 1250 |———} 555 | 580 
` Okahumkee, Florida. | Apr: 18, 1873. |. pad 1050 | 1550 | 490° | £76 


88 í ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE SOUTH. 


than the 2> specimen. The fourth specimen. however, was marked much ~ 

like “ lorida one and its measurements = nearly the same; they are as fok a 

loy mae 10°75; extent 15°25; wing 4°90; tail 5-00. : 
Myiarchus Crue KON (Great Crested Flycatcher). Very abundant at Green Cove i 


HULUIKE 


‘Ceryle a Mores Boie (Belted Kingfisher). Common on the St. John’s. a 
Antrostomus Carolinensis — (Chuck-will’s-widow). Common on the Oc kandi ‘ 
= * — eeds. Strictly a nocturnal species. Roosts on the grouk 


ing the 

Chordeiles Poetae Baird (Night-hawk). Very common abont the St. John’s and ock 4 

law = eeds ifty or more often aas se once about the boat in the evening. 

ee Linn. (Humming Bird). abundant at Okahumkee. Breeds. 
vitamin principalis Gray pended aha cker). Rare about the St. John’s — 
and Ocklawaha. Breeds. 

Picus villosus, var. ype —. (Hairy Wobidpecker). Abundant on the st. Jomas 

and Ocklaw. 

Picus borealis Vieni (Red pen Woodpecker). Common at Green Cove Spring — 
and = Okahumkee. vissem In an resembles P. villosus. Has a desided > 
partiality acd pine swamps and b aaa 

Sphyrapious varius gr _Cellow-belied Woodpecker). Common on the St. John’s i 

d Ocklawaha. 


a 
yino ar Bart r of the Woods). Very numerous about the St. John’s — : 
me sti ott a. Breeds. Confi — chiefly to the thick hammocks and swamps. a 


isy bird. 

pais Carolinus Bonap. (Red- Denied Woodpecker). Very common o Okahumkee- : 
s.. Inhabits both the pine b y hummoc ne 
m erythrocephalus Sw. (Red-headed Woodpecker). Common at  Okahumkee 


Calan auratus Sw. (Yellow-shafted Flicker; Yaffle). Comnion on the St. John’s and 
at Okahumkee. Breeds. Differs aeoe pr our northern bird. i gee 
— and dario, Itá dimensions are as follows :—wing 5°75; aa 
measurements of a ue ey from no bahia New York (Leyden, ‘Lewis Co.) are 
il 5: 


wing 6 
Conurus Caroliseneis duhi. Seea —— ie the upper St. Jobn’s and on the 
Ocklawaha. Breeds. G fl them 


regari Roo hol 
are often captured by tines a ins nathan tree in which they roost and © 
it down after nightfall. They a are tite no: cad birds and if a flock is anywhere in 


Strix pratincola Bouap. ( ( Hark Owl). Common : about the Ocklawaha. Breeds. 
Syrnium nebulosum Gray (Barred Owl) Ocklawaha. 
 Haliaëtas ee Savigny (Bald Eagle). One seen sailing over the St. Ti 


Pandion Carvlinensis Bonap. (Osprey; Fish Hawk). Common about the St. John’s à 
ne eene emee E ray (Pigeon Hawk). Not uncommon about the St. nat 
nouns evar verian Vieill. (Sparrow Hawk). Common on the St. John’s asi 
i Jawaha. Breeds. 
borealis 


?) Vieill. (Red-tailed Hawk). Several Buteos were seen abont the 
„borealis. 


A, probabl yB. : 
forficatus Miagwsy (Swallow-taited Kite). Common abont the St. 10 


(Turkey Buzzard). Common on St. John’s & Ocklawaha. 
Black Vulture). mon on the St. Joms m an 

in Florida than C. aura. Thay 
these birds "os two ar Geer 


ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE SOUTH. 89 
Zenzdura naar oo ec Turtle Dove). Common about the St. John’s 
and O 
Pi ee ina apt Ground Dove). This miniature Dove was quite common 
Breeds. 


about the St. John’s. 
Meleagris vonage ery bie Tur gi Common in the thick hummocks on the 
rs eeds. 


upper St. John’s and Ocklawaha. 
ea Virginians, var. Flor iamas Cones (Florida Quail). Common about the St. 
and at Okahumkee 
Grus pia Pir Temm. (Sand- nic eag a Common on the Ocklawaha. 


Aramus giganteus Baird (Crying Bird; Limpkin). Common on the Ocklawaha. 
Breeds. Limpkins are very noisy ds; they sega sit on a limb over the water 
The 


and scold at us as the boat passed b ey were breeding and I noticed several 
Spn sitting on their nésts as we pas ssed; ou were placed in the fork of some 
tree, or at the junction of some limb with the trunk, generally about eight feet 


‘abov aie ground zor water), “and were spent se rudely of sticks, measuring 


xte 


nally eep.- 
Damieaeoies Ludoviciana Baird (Louisiana Egret). foe uncommon on the Ocklawaha. 


reeds. 

Garzetta candidissima Bonap. (Snowy Egret). Common oh the upper Ocklawaha 
These beautiful birds were often s in o to fifty, together with 
the white ¢ ias Apari and water turkeys (Plotus anhinga). The 


r construct gone nests of pesg 
Herodias egretta y (White Heron). Common on the upper Ocklawaha. Breeds. 
Ardea herodias a (Great ias Heron). Common on St. John’s ak “Ocklawaha. 


ree 
Florida sxrulen Baird (Blue Heron). Common on the uppér Ocklawaha- I obt ained 
one nest of this bird at Okahumkee; it was built carelessly ae sticks and was 
placed on some bushes about five feet above the ground. It was ona little float- 


ing —— m a small pond, and contained two fresh eggs. The o old birds were 
hag within shooting penis 

Ardetta exi “pre Least Bittern). Common on the ina Ocklawa 

Serta ita Steph. (Bittern; Stake vone Common on e peA 


u Th hi ) 
Butorides virescens Bonap. (Green Heron). oe on upper Ocklaw: aha. B 


_ Fulica Americana Gmelin (Coot). Common on upper Ocklawaha. Breeds. 
Plotus anhinga Linn. (Water Turkey; Snake Bird). Common on Ocklawaha. These 
curious birds, though unexcelled swimmers and divers, are generally observed 


for some 
perched on th een | 
distance. cae the pe approached se would fly ahead and again alight eg: a 
=” similar si tuation. sometimes s w them s swimming i in the water ahead ofu 


fora ae time, for after diving In never saw on e rise 
PPRT ts at Okahumkee. It was built on the same 

tas biae heron (Florida cerulea) before ron It was composed. of sticks 
dey lid together on te e top of a bush, about eight fe 


THE BOTANY OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 


BY J. G. COOPER, M.D. 


Durixe the last week of April, 1872; I made a rapid but very 
delightful trip through a region scarcely known to naturalists, and 
of which the very name, as given above, is not, I believe, to be 
found on any published map. 

Yet it is a range equal in extent and height to the White Moun- ` 
tains of New England, that favorite resort of eastern naturalists, 
which has furnished them with so many interesting subarctic — 
species both of animals and plants. 

The highest ridge of the Cuyamaca range lies forty miles east 
of San Diego Bay, being at the southwest corner of the Union, and 
thus almost the antipodes of the White Mountains: with which,. 
however, we may compare it in many respects.* The summits of 
the three highest peaks are thus nearly as far from the coast as 
Mount Washington, and the central one, measured by my com- 
panion, Mr. W. A. Goodyear of the California Geological Survey, 
was found to be also about six thousand two hundred feet above : 
the sea by mercurial barometer. The great mass of the range is 
granite, with some mica and talcose slate on its flanks, especially 

the eastern, where there are also gold mines, not long opio but 
_ already paying well. 

The foot-hills of the range commence about ten miles from the 
— coast, some of them at once rising into rugged hills over one thou- 
-~ sand feet high, and very conspicuous from contrast with o 


Deser i which has lately been pti by 


THE BOTANY OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 91 


railroad surveyors to be actually over two hundred feet below the 
level of the sea in its central parts. Looking off from the moun- 
tains in that direction, we see an immense, sandy level plain, 
bounded by distant rugged mountains toward the northeast, but 
illimitable toward the southeast, except by the dim misty horizon. 
Not a tree nor a trace of greén vegetation relieves the eye, and we 
gladly turn away from it to the verdant hills above the summit of 
the wall from which we have been looking eastward. 

The base of the range is therefore about fifty-five miles wide, 
with a slope of five thousand four hundred feet in thirty miles to- 
ward the west, and of the same amount in only fifteen miles on the 
east. It is singular that all the water falling east of the high 

. peaks finds its way around them and runs to the west. 

VEGETATION. — Being thus the western rim of the desert, the 
dryest portion of the United States, where the rainfall (as meas- 
ured at Fort Yuma) averages only about two inches annually, we 
may expect the mountains to partake, in some degree, of the 
sterility of the desert itself. But their vicinity to the Pacific 
Ocean, that exhaustless reservoir from which most of the rains of 
the western slope are derived, produces a fair amount of rainfall 
in winter, and at the same time increases the dryness of the desert, 
by intercepting this precipitation. At the same time the summer 
rains of Mexico and Arizona are to some extent poured out upon 
the eastern slope of the mountains between four thousand and six 
thousand feet elevation, thus failing to reach the coast, though they 
ean be seen frequently from San Diego falling as thunder-storms 
upon the mountain tops, and very rarely pass over the -lower 
passes northward to the Los Angeles plains. 

Consequently the highest ridge is thickly clothed with trees, and 
although they end at four thousand feet on the east slope, they 

-extend down the western, gradually thinning out, to the edges of 
the mésa, and thence along the banks of the rivers nearly to the 
sea. The lower mountains, and parts of the mésa are covered 
with shrubs but scarcely dense enough to hide the sterile rocks and 
= Near the sea, herbage of various kinds, but thin and of little 
value as pasture, covers the surface; improving, however, where 
ploughing has loosened the soil, packed almost to the hard- 
ness of bricks by two centuries of eattle-grazing and by the arid 
climate. A narrow belt of shrubby oaks (Adenostema and 


E 


a 


92 THE BOTANY OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS, 


Spiræa with some other shrubs), runs along within a mile of the © 
- beach, watered and sustained by the sea-fogs. Then comes what — 
may be called the cactus zone, as six or eight species of that — 
family, with low yuccas and other plants of the group bordering — 
the desert are the most striking growth, often forming thickets by = 
themselves in sandy places, and being in the dry season almost i ) 
the only green vegetation. The laurel sumach ( Lithrea laurina ~ 7 
Nutt.) is a shrubby tree accompanying them in thickets of small — 
extent. eS | 
These characterize the mésa, scarcely ascending above it, and — 
form indeed the northern extension of the flora of the still more- : 
arid peninsula. The river-bottoms are more fertile, many grasses, 
flowering plants and small live-oaks (Quercus agrifolia Nees), syè- — : 
amores and willows, lining the edges of the water-courses, which 
are, however, usually dry during nine months of the year, for a dis- 
tance of five or six miles above their mouths. This valley vege- — 


instead of the southern (or lower) Californian flora. Some of the 
sandy portions, however, reproduce nearly the same group as the 
Colorado valley. Of course it is quite possible that isolated spec- 
imens of some trees may exist, not met with on our journey. 
As the botanists of the Mexican Boundary, and Pacific 
Surveys have explored and thoroughly analyzed the ‘flora of t 
lower zones, I will refer to their reports for further details. 
The forests of the mountains may perhaps be best illustr: 
by giving an abstract of my observations made during Our 
_ joumey across them, at the same time giving an idea of the clima 
at the end of April.* 
April 26th. Atl P. m., we left town sd rode over the ı mi 
the San Diego river, encamping a mile above the old Mission, 
-~ — date palms and olives in cultivation give quite a tropical 
ue to the already parched and barren scene. A few pools of stag 
Se water only remain in the wide sandy river-bed. I walked 
ee camp three miles over the mésa north of the valley, to where 
— Po against the granite hill through which the river has 
de ow cañon, returning for two miles ao the lower, 


= 


THE BOTANY OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS, 93 


of this canon. A little rivulet still runs down here, but sinks be- 
fore reaching camp, and we had to obtain water from a well. Oak 
and sycamore (Platanus racemosa Nutt.) are here quite luxuriant 
close to the water but disappear below camp, and even willows be- 
come very small.* Remains of the ancient aqueduct, built by the 
Spanish missionaries full seventy years ago, to carry water from 
above this cañon nine miles to the mission, are very conspicuous, 
and show much engineering skill, as well as excellent workmanship. 
April 27th. Mr. Goodyear and Mr. Fox of the Southern Pacific 
R. R., walked up the cañon to examine the geology and the aque- 
duct, finding an excellent dam, which has withstood nearly a cen- 
tury of summer droughts and winter torrents. I rode up the south 
mésa nine miles to Cajon valley, a basin lying between the mésa 
and the hills, in part the remnant of an old lake-bed excavated by 
the river before it broke through the hills. It now however looks 
very arid, the granitic gravel covering it being only thinly con- 
cealed by crops of wheat just ripening, and the surrounding native 
vegetation being all dried up. A few small elder trees (Sambucus 
glauca) are the only green things visible about a spring on the 
south side of the yian. 
a The river runs on the north side, six ciil distant, and is there 
: — pretty well lined with the trees mentioned, together with some large 
cotton-wood poplars (P. monilifera). Its elevation being four 
hundred feet above the sea, and the impervious granite retaining 
the moisture, we find a great increase in tree growth compared with 
the lower region, but still confined to the moist river banks. The 
ey greater moisture is still further shown by the fact that although so 
| i arid, this is the first valley where a crop is successful this year, 
though it will mostlybe cut for hay, which is so high priced at 
San Diego as to make it more profitable to cut it than to wait for 
the uncertain and light crop of wheat. Some other grain and vege- 
tables are also raised along the river. The California wild grape 
- (Vitis Califbrnica Benth.) grows in moist spots about this valley. 
The green cornel (Cornus piena Nutt. ) also forms a small tree 
: along the streams. — 
-= About six miles east, the river’ again r a cañon in which it 
5 never dries up and where the Indians have their favorite settle- 
ment, convenient to the acorn crop. The road, areais leaves 


E E A S E er T 
* Two or three erpe in these mountains grow sixty f feet high and two in ape 
Ic 


94 THE BOTANY OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 


this cañon on the north, ascending over rolling granitic hills, on 
which, at about six hundred feet altitude, we meet the first thick- 
cup oak (Quercus crassipocula), a curious form, with pale oval 
leaves, sometimes lobate, which remain green all winter down here, 
and fall on the coming out of the new leaves, now just grown. 
Various mountain plants, before unseen, accompany it, and it is 
perhaps the limit of the orange, which has been growing here 
for more than ten years successfully on Ames’ ranche. The most : 
notable shrubby trees are the northern evergreen plum (Prunus 
ilicifolia Nutt.),** wild lilac” (Ceanothus thyrsiflorus Esch.), and 
a shrubby live oak (Q. Ransomi Kell.). 
Five miles from the valley at Flynn’s, about nine hundred feet 
elevation, and in a narrow ravine, we first found a really luxuriant 
vegetation ; the trees very large, crops heavy and a fine orchard, 
eight years old, of all the common fruits and some young orange- 
trees, figs, grapes, etc. The chief cause of this productiveness was- 
forcibly impressed on our mind, by finding that the usual sea-fe 
which had been more dense than usual this day in the form of a 
cloudy sky, began to condense into rain after sunset, and heavy 
showers continued during the whole night. We afterwards learned 
that this rain was light in Cajon valley, but did not reach San 
Diego at all, though general in the northern part of the state. — 
April 28th. Light showers continued until 10 A. m., and as- h 
clouds lifted, we saw the Cuyamaca Mountains, white with a 
only a few miles east of us. Crossing rocky and mostly bar 
: granitic hills, which become more and more covered on their) 
slopes with large shrubs of northern species of Ceanothus, 
_ staphylus, ete., we reached another old lake bed called “ Valle 
~ los Viejos” (from some ancient aborigines found there by the f 
_ Mexican visitors), having an elevation of over two thousand 
and where the verdure of spring was scarcely beginning, ton witl 
o but showed a paucity of species indicating that it is too 
n ln epee forms and too dry at times for many 
From this we ania a steep rocky ridge one thousand 
hundred : feet whore, from the top of which we could look down 
a a ‘San Die: Bay, and distinguish the lighthouse. pea 
— southwest. ‘Shrubs only cover this slope, but on © 
: summit, we es enter a scattered but luxuriant 


N 


= 


THE BOTANY OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 95 


similar growth on the mountains near Santa Cruz two hundred and 
eighty miles farther north, near the sea-level. Crossing a wide 
valley with a fine running stream, we ascended again and encamped 
at a height of three thousand eight hundred feet, about two hun- 
dred feet below the commencement of the pine growth. The two 
evergreen oaks here grow splendidly, scattered. among grassy 
meadows fit only for grazing, on account of early frosts. 

April 29th. There was heavy frost in the night forming thin 
ice at camp. Still gradually ascending through a lovely forest, 
alive with the songs of migrating spring birds, we found the yellow 
pine (P. ponderosa Dougl.) at a height of about four thousand feet, 
and a little higher the black oak (Quercus Sonomensis) just leaf- 
ing out, a most beautiful reminder of the northern deciduous 
forests. Then comes the lofty and magnificent sugar pine (P. 


. Lambertiana Dougl.), and near the summit of the dividing ridge, 


the graceful “white cedar” (Libocedrus decurrens Torr.), and a 
spruce which seemed, from the remnants of cones, to be the noble 
fir (Picea nobilis Dougl.), at about five thousand’ “a elevation, 
forming a tree three feet in diameter. 

We have thus above the cactus zone, a zone of oaks from six 
hundred to four thousand feet, and then a zone of pines from four 
thousand to six thougand two hundred feet, ‘but the former en- 
croaches widely on the latter. 

The road crosses this summit by an easy grade, close to the base 
of the highest peak, and a dense forest covers this and the other 
two next highest, which lie north and south of it. Circumstances 
prevented me from ascending the summit, very much to my regret, 
but I was informed by the gentlemen who did so, that the sugar 
pine and fir form the chief growth, with some oaks and Libocedrus 
and a less common pine with lower growth and spreading branches, 


but very large cones, apparently the P. Sabiniana Douglas, of the 


lower Sierra. 
Frozen snow covered the branches of these trees for five kadrid 


feet below the summit, making it dangerous for the trav ellers, from 
~ the chance of heavily encrusted branches or cones falling on them, . 
: _ but they made the trip’ safely, there being no wind, and the sun 
-~ Coming out so warmly, as soon to clear away the icy coating. The 
: alder (Alnus oblongifolius, Torr.) and sycamore continue up to five 
: > thousand feet on the west side of this ridge, but disappear on the 


about Sre none feet to the Sonim: 


96 ` THE BOTANY OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 


mine, the country is varied with grassy meadows and hills covered 
with yellow pine and thick-cup oak, which here nearly altogether — 
replaces thé Q. agrifolia. Itis also less forward in leafing than on — 
the west slope where first seen, the old leaves almost all remaining. 
A low ridge east of this, and forming the summit of the steep de- : 
scent to the desert, produces a scattered growth of the P. Sabiniana — 
almost alone, just as it grows on the foot-hills bordering both sides 
of the San Joaquin valley, ete. 
Among the herbaceous plants I recognized most as familiar : 
northern species, and saw indications in their forms of a more arid - 
climate than on the west slope at the same elevation. Our rapid — 
journey and want of materials prevented me from obtaining @ : 
series of them, which would be interesting if only for the purposes ; 
of geographical botany. 
April 30th. The road now going northward led us over the cast 
base of the most northern peak, where I was much surprised | at 
passing through one of the densest forests I have seen in Califo 
for a distance of about five miles, consisting of the two live oaks 
and sugar pine, the former sometimes five to seven feet in diam- 
eter. The variety of Q. agrifolia, called Q. oayadera by Torrey, is 
quite numerous from: two thousand to four thousand feet altitud: 
| What made it most surprising was that a few rods from its shai 
po defined eastern edge, is the rocky barren ridge forming the rir 
~, the desert, and it seemed unaccountable how such a dense gro’ | 
of trees could exist there. I was informed, however, by Mr. 
that the “ Sonora rains,” as they are called here, are very fre 
on this slope during summer, supplying the requisite mois 
He also told us that Pine valley, about fifteen miles southw K 


oo 


x 


‘near ee as to fates little moisture shat: to be conseque 
ery arid. Such i is their character along the line selected fo 


f , where we came toa rolling hilly countrys £ 
ae perene trees, chiefly on north slopes, of the oaks, 
> and £ Sabiniana, — extending to San Felipe Pass, 
summit of which are the most productive gold - mines, 


n as Julian Sa four thousand fee l 


THE BOTANY OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 97 


slope is too subject to the parching east or “ Desert” winds to be of 
much value for any but mining purposes. From here the descent 
toward the northwest is very rapid, and pines end all at once ; oaks, 
however, continuing on the north slopes and in moist spots. The 
Quercus agrifolia becomes again more common than the Quercus 
crassipocula which ceases at about six hundred feet. On the east 
slope it will be noticed that the zone of oaks is entirely wanting, 
or is mingled with that of pines, while the cactus zone immediately 
succeeds them. 

Here the Cuyamaca range ends, being separated from other 
ranges to the north and northeast by the Pass and by Santa Isabel 
valley at the head of San Bernardo river. Its length, from this to 
the railroad pass near the Mexican Boundary, is thus about twenty- 
five miles, its width about the same, leaving out the low foot-hills 
on the west, and including only the portion above an elevation of 
two thousand feet. Descending into the valley, the sycamore re- 
appears at about three thousand eight hundred feet, the cottonwood 
at three thousand five hundred feet, and the black oak disappears 
at the same elevation. The country is more cut up by wide valleys 
than on the slope we ascended, but they are generally drier at the 
same altitude. At our camp in anarrow valley, one thousand eight 
hundred and fifty feet high, trees were scarce, and crops grew only 
by irrigation. 

May Ist. The road led over a rolling granitic ridge of hills be- 
tween the San Bernardo and San Diego rivers, with scanty herb- 
age and scattered oak groves, to the north side of Cajon valley, 
where we looked down from about one thousand feet elevation over 
this curious basin six hundred feet below us, and also over the 
terraced mésa toward the ocean, plainly perceiving San Clemente 
island eighty-five miles distant. The ‘‘ Desert wind,” which com- 
menced yesterday, made the air unusually clear, but at the same 
time was so hot and dry as to be very uncomfortable. The Cuya- 
maca peaks appeared now to be completely bare of snow. 

As the rest of the journey back was over the same route before 
described, I omit farther extracts from my journal. It must appear 
from these notes that this range, from its liability to severe 
droughts, does not have such a luxuriant flora and sylva as might 
-be expected from its southern position, the trees being all merely 
o _ Stragglers from more northern forests, and none of them, except 
: the yellow pine and oaks, found in great abundance. At the same 

| AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIL 


98 SCIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES. 


time the altitude of the central peaks, and the consequent coldness 
around their bases (snow falling on them as late as the middle of 
May some years), prevent the growth of the more southern group 
of trees and plants, which might find the moisture sufficient, above 
one thousand feet. 

This is shown by the fact that in two isolated localities not far 
from this range, but in the low country, are small groves of trees — 
probably belonging properly to the Sylva of the warmer high 
mountains of lower California. One of these is Pinus Torreyand, 
growing scantily on the sandstone bluffs near the mouth of Soledad 
creek, nine miles north of S. Diego Bay, and three hundred and fifty 
feet above the sea. The other is Quercus oblongifolia, found near 
the head of San Luis Rey river, sixteen miles north of Santa 
Isabel valley, and about one hundred and fifty feet altitude. * Be 
sides these we miss on this range many northern trees found on 
the San Bernardino Range (eleven thousand six hundred feet high, 
by Mr. Goodyear’s measurement). Of these I have noted the far- 
spread red fir (Tsuga Douglasii) and walnut (Juglans rupestris 
Englm.). The nut pine (P. monophyllus Torr.), and juniper (J. — 
occidentalis Nutt.), of the great arid basin east of the mountains, 
very probably grow scantily lower down the eastern slope of this 
range, 


SCIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES. 


FROM THE FRENCH OF ALPHONSE DE CANDOLLE. 


- [Tue following extract is taken from a recent publication 
titled “ Histoire des Sciences et des Savants depuis deux siècli 
— a very curious and instructive work, in which the lists of 
eign associates and correspondents of the three leading scientific 

academies (those of Paris, London and Berlin) have b 


upon the United States, contained in a detailed “ examination 
different countries viewed with regard to the causes of their 
fluence on the sciences.” It is difficult fully to appresi 


*I am inclined to Believe thie to be oniy a very ean e T 
‘bet hewe mot boha the ac 


. SCIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES. 99 


argument which runs through this exttact, without presenting 
such an analysis of the whole work as would occupy too mue 
space. We commend the entire volume to the careful study of 
the readers of the NATURALIST, as an admirable example of a sci- 
entific essay. — S. H. SCUDDER. 

The two foreign associates of the French Academy, and the ma- 
jority of the American correspondents of this Academy and of 
the two other bodies above mentioned,* belong to the New Eng- 
land states. Consequently, calculations based on the Union taken 
as a whole do not give correct ideas, and, to appreciate the influ- 
ences at work, we must distinguish between the six northeastern 
states and the rest of the country. 

The most brilliant epoch for New England was that of Franklin 
and Rumford. The population of this part of the United States 
was at that time only half a million, and in consequence of its 
origin it presented very favorable conditions. ; 

The only unfavorable conditions were our Nos. 1, 2, 7 and 18.+ 
None of these are very important or very characteristic. We thus 
understand why New England has made the same progress in sci- 
ence as the most civilized countries of Europe. The early pil- 
grims resembled the protestants expelled from France and 
Belgium, in their ancient intellectual culture, their devotion to 
ideas rather than to interests, their laborious and austere life. 

The rigor of the old Calvinism gave place at Boston, as at 
Geneva and in Scotland, to broader and more tolerant ideas. 
Without this a Franklin would not have been possible, and the sci- 
entific influence of Harvard University can scarcely be otherwise 
explained. If, to-day, anything would seem to threaten this 
Select population of New England, it is the incessant emigration 
of its youth to other parts of America and the immigration of for- 
eigners for the most part very different from the early settlers. 
Perhaps also the characteristic activity of Americans is an obsta- 


od Royal Society of cei! anoi ve —_— of Sciences of Berlin. 


i Small proportion of persons raees one the rich classes, as compared with 
those who are obliged to work for their living and especially to labor with their hands. 
2. Small proportion among the richer classes of those who are contented with their 
Income ane whose DT requires but little attention, = that they are inclined to 


he 7- Insufficient and poorly organized materia bg various scientific work, such as 


15. Distance from civilized countries. 


100 SCIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES. 


cle to the cultivation of the sciences, even in the New England 
states. Taking the Union as a whole, the principal difficulty evi- 
dently lies here. The young men abandon their studies early in 
life. They change their residence and profession again and again, 
hoping for greater and more speedy gains. Savants whose learn- 
ing does not extend to trade stand strangely alone in a society 
thus devoted to the production of all mercantile commodities. 
The inventive genius of Americans also gives the preference to 
applications which do not strictly belong to science. I need only 
repeat here what a very distinguished American savant said 
recently at the opening of a session of the scientific association of © 
the United States.* Moreover, to be just, and to reply to certain 
European notions founded on a superficial knowledge of the peo- 
ple of the United States, it will be well to add one remark. It is 
not through greed of gain and of material pleasure that the Amer- 
icans throw themselves with such ardor into lucrative pursuits. 
They are quite capable of sacrificing their interests to ideas, as 
we have seen in their great civil war. It was surely for the inter- 
est of both parties that they should then, by means of mutual con- 
cessions, continue to live in peace; but the south held to the orig- _ 
inal sovereignty of each state, the north to the present and future 
agerandjzement of the United States, and a portion of the people 
aimed at the abolition of slavery. They sacrificed everything to 
sentiments and ideas. When a few hundred men can be found 
among the Americans, as zealous for the advancement of science 
as their volunteers were for political opinions, they will make 
marvellous progress. It is not activity nor intelligence which 
they lack: it is the will to apply themselves to that which brings 
_ in no return, and which is not in sympathy with the popular tastes 


is 


_ *“ Prue, it h y given to the world many a master work, in the arts of peace 
and the arts of war; the steam mboat, the cotton gin and the sewing machine; the prat” 
_ tical application of the electric telegraph , and the means of its printed record; 
most agai form yet attained for the steam engine e and the steam boiler; ci 
the telescopes of Clark an 


the SSC ma Spencer and Tolles, and the means of annihilating pain. » - - . 
_ What I chlo adr deme whatever may be the claims of our coun untry to have 
her part " the furtherance so far as depends upon the solution of 
political problems and a vancement in the arts, her couesteeiien 
mi pace with these; nor, indeed, with those of several ; European 
rahia in 


she: 


i i andolle quotes from an } ; 
cones sae | appeared in the Gazette Médicale de Paris, May 20, 187 he 
rea delivered in 180, not D 15 as stated by DeCandolle.] 


SCIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES. 101 


It would seem also that in this young nation (excepting New 
England) the people are of a very speculative turn of mind. 
- Poets of both sexes are numerous. Religious sects sometimes 
give evidence of a great power of imagination. The most eccen- 
tric, that of the Mormons, strove to reéstablish a well known in- 
stitution, polygamy, but it has also invented the theory of spirit- 
ual wives, which, by its purity, its grace and its novelty, really 
deserves a prize of poesy. Spiritualism has found more favor in 
the United States than in Europe. Now to reach a brilliant scien- 
tific epoch, we must have a public eager for abstract truth, for 
things which may be demonstrated by perfectly sure processes, 
and, I should add, things of little or no practical use. 

Precedents, traditions, so advantageous to free scientific labor, 
are wholly wanting among most of those who emigrate to the 
United States. The selection of this population is brought about 
by a desire for lucrative employment, and the result is in perfect 
accordance with the theory. It would be quite different, if, for ex- 
ample, wars and revolutions were gradually undermining civiliza- 
tion in Europe, and if thousands of families who had followed 
liberal professions for one or two centuries, hoped to find more se- 
curity in America. We should then see, on a large scale, what 
took place for the benefit of New England, of Switzerland, of 
Holland and of Prussia, at the time of the old persecutions of 
French and Belgian protestants. America would have inherited 
the secular culture of sciences in Europe. In the absence of sim- 
ilar circumstances, the extension of inherited fortunes, of instruc- 
tion, and of the isolation, already apparent, of many enlightened 
men in the midst of democratic tumult, must gradually develop, 
among a certain class of the American people, a taste for disin- 
terested and purely scientific research. 

Distance from the old civilized countries has long been injuri- 
ous to the labors and the reputation of American savants. In 
proof of this, we may notice that the only citizens of the United 
States called to the high distinction of the title of Associate of 
the French Academy of Science, Franklin and Thompson, Count 
Rumford, had resided in Europe, the first in a conspicuous posi- 
tion, the other for a long period of years.* Otherwise, it is very 


gi * DeCandolle’s tables end with 1870. Since then the late Professor nent was 


r 


e a Ay ted i America 


ay `> Pi . 4 = 


Bull and Stinking Water. : 


a‘ 
102 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 


possible that less attention would have been paid to their labors. 
In our day, communication has become more ready. Many young 
Americans study in Europe. Others come to travel after publish- 
ing memoirs. Their scientific zeal is thus increased, and the Eu- 
ropean savants become better acquainted with them. Finally, the 
Anglo-American language is destined, by the force of circum- 
stances, to predominate. In every way, therefore, one may expect 
a larger development of the sciences in the United States—it is 
true ina somewhat distant future, for favorable influences make 
themselves felt only after one or two generations. 


BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. a 


BY DR. C. C. PARRY. 
EOE 

No. 2. a 

Wisp River, which in pursuing a general southeast course 
drains the entire eastern slope of the Wind River range, also 
receives from the east and north the drainage of an extensive 
mountain district, to which, as a whole, no distinctive name has ye 
been applied. To the most southeastern extension of this moun- 


through the little known Big Horn tributaries of Owl Creek, G 


route, instead of following down the main valley, crossed 
Wind River some distance above the sharp bend above refer 
o, thence crossing a low spur of the Owl Creek range, and sk 
ing near the base of the high mountains to the west, passed Ow 
Creek, Gray Bull and several southern tributaries of Stil r 
Water, to ascend a main branch of the latter stream to its 


BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 103 


in the high divide separating its waters from those of the Yellow- 
stone basin. On this route the chief point of botanical interest 
centred in the comparatively little explored district of Owl Creek 
range, the valleys of Owl Creek, Gray Bull and Stinking Water, 
and the high mountain region at the sources of the last named 
stream. We accordingly note briefly in their order of passing the 
features of botanical interest presented on our route. 

The valley of Wind River, as its name suggestively implies, i is 
especially subject to the sweep of fierce northwest winds, which 
necessarily leave their impress upon the native vegetation. Thus 
everywhere on the uplands and low open valleys there is a close 
uniform growth of stunted grasses, or the dull moorish aspect 
presented by the constantly recurring Artemisia. On saline flats 
the view is hardly improved by a ranker and more verdant growth 
of the spine-clad Sarcobatus; everywhere there is a monotonous 
recurrence of the same forms of vegetation, comprising such only 
as are capable of withstanding the combined unfavorable influ- 
ences of a parched soil during the season of summer growth, 
followed by an early and rigorous winter. Only in moist, shel- 
tered bottom-lands do we meet with anything like a rank vegeta- 
tion, made up of dense willow thickets, occasional copses of — 
. Shepherdia argentea Nutt., with irregular scattering groves of 
Populus balsamea. Especially abundant in all damp, rich, alluvial 
tracts in this region we meet with the ** wild licorice” (Glycyrrhiza 
` lepidota Nutt.), here very commonly infested with a parasitic fun- 
gus, Trichobasis leguminosarum Link. 

In the series of steep bluffs bounding the main river bottoms, 
the deep gullied ravines offer a greater variety of soil and expos- 
ure favorable to a diversified and peculiar vegetation. Here, 
accordingly, among other rarities we meet with a well marked new 
species of Astragalus, distinguished by its loose straggling habit, 
growing in light loamy soil, and sending up a loose spike of white 
flowers which rarely mature fruit. Prof. Gray has characterized 
this species (No. 65 of the distributed collection) as A. ventorum, 
n. sp. (see appendix). Here also along the slopes of high gypseous 

ridges we meet quite abundantly with a new composite, Schkuhria 
EEEO integrifolia Gray, n. sp. (see appendix, No. 
50); of a habit and e quite unlike any other species of 
sa genus. - 
On oe the broken foot-hills of the Owl Creek range, both 


104 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 


the scenery and vegetation became much more diversified; and 
rounded slopes of disintegrated metamorphic rocks, sharp crests 
of upheaved strata, and extensive exposures of the brick-red Tri- 
assic formation, present in their varied exposures all the condi- — 
tions for a varied flora. We accordingly here meet with such 
choice — as Stanleya viridiflora Nutt., Oxytropis campestris 
L., var.? (No. 88), Aplopappus multicaulis Nutt., Tanacetum capi- 
iaku Nutt. ; 

Farther up on the mountain slopes the increased elevation is 
evidenced by greater freshness of vegetation, the dull brown of 
the lowlands giving place to a rich soft verdure. Constant run- 
ning streams, however, are still rare, as the altitude is not suffi- 
cient to afford heavy deposits of winter snow to keep up a supply 
of water through the dry summer months. As we again encounter 
pine woods composed mainly of Abies Douglasii and Pinus flexilis, — 
the associated undergrowth is again brought to view in thick, 
matted growths of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, and occasional patches 
of Berberis Aquifolium. Still there is a characteristic absence of 
many forms such as one would naturally look for in such ] 
ities, neither scrub oak, Rubus nor Symphoricarpus being here 
represented. Very common and attractive over all this dis 
are the bright, showy flowers of a species of Lupinus (No. 
allied to L. sericeus Ph.? but difficult to refer to any descri 
species; here also Hedysarum boreale Nutt. is conspicuous, W 
its slender spikes of nodding pink flowers, occasionally inclin 
to a dull pinkish-white. On the crests of the dividing ridge 
taining an elevation of nine thousand feet there are exten 
exposures of an arenaceous limestone, presenting tabled sum 
and perpendicular mural faces, with irregular broken talus at 
es. These localities offer not only very attractive poi 
view of thé adjoining country, but afford a rare field for the bot 
nist. Here in rock crevices was found the charming dwarf colun 
_ bine, which, in compliment to the enterprising commander of 

ce expedition, and its first actual discov erer, I have named Aqu 
Jonesii, n. sp. (see appendix, No. 3). This species, which ist n 

- nearly allied to A. vulgaris L., is sufficiently distinguished 
_ dwarf size and Close cæspitose habit, as well as other well m 
characters indicated in the description referred to. It w 
— doubt prove highly ornamental in cultivation, but infora 
the perio of our collection (in July) the fruit was aed 

» 


BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 105 


and it was only by diligent search that sufficient late flowering 
specimens were met with to complete the description. 

Besides this choice addition to our native flora, other plants 
worthy of note may be enumerated, viz: Anemone multifida DC., 
Arenaria arctica Stev., Arenaria Rossii R. Br., Lupinus minimus 
Dougl., Oxytropis campestris L., Spiræa cæspitosa Nutt., Saxifraga 
Jamesii Torr., Saxifraga debilis Engel., Phlox Douglasii Hook., 
Polemonium confertum Gray, Androsace chamæjasme L., Castilleia 
pallida Kth., Lloydia serotina Reich. 

The peculiarities of the timber growth in this section will be 
more fully dwelt on in a subsequent article ; it is sufficient here to 
note the regular order of succession everywhere noticeable as dis- 
tinct zones of arborescent growth. Thus the lower mountain 
slopes are occupied by scattered groves of Pinus ponderosa and 
Abies Douglasii, succeeded higher up by Pinus flexilis and Pinus 
contorta, while the highest ridges support a dense forest of Abies 
Engelmanni. 

In descending the northeastern slope of the Owl Creek range, 
forming the western edge of the Big Horn basin, we come upon 
principal tributary streams draining the high mountain region to 
the west. In all these valleys, including Owl Creek, Gray Bull 
and Stinking Water, a uniform character of vegetation is observ- 
able, constituting a very distinct botanical district. On the steep 
gravelly ridges bounding the valley of Owl Creek was first noticed 
a very remarkable species of Stanleya, distinguished from all other 
known species of this interesting genus by the dense tomentose 
covering of its stem and foliage, and the sharply hastate form of 
its leaves. I have accordingly named it Stanleya tomentosa, n. sp. 
(see appendix, No. 13). This plant, then (July 20), in the full 
glory of its dense spike of cream-colored flowers, formed a con- 
spicuous feature in the floral landscape. In this same locality was 
also found a new species of Phelipwa, which on account of its 
bright yellow color I have named Phelipea lutea, n. sp. (see ap- 
pendix, No. 202). This plant, which is met with growing in close 
proximity to the’ allied species, Phelipwa fasciculata Nutt., fur- 
-nished an opportunity for a direct comparison of fresh living speci- 

mens, thus affording a more satisfactory means of distinguishing 
specific difference than could be derived from the dry faded plants. 
~ Along the borders of a dry ravine was collected a yellow flowered 
-~ Astragalus with nearly mature fruit. -This, on a cursory view, I 


ae In our course up the valley of Stinking Water there was 


106 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 


noted as a form of A. flavus Nutt., previously collected on Green 
River. Prof. Gray, to whom specimens were sent under the above — 
name, recognized its distinct character. I have therefore ventured — 
to compliment the actual discoverer, as well as the chief elucidator 
of this difficult genus of western North American plants, by nam- — 
ing it Astragalus Grayi, n. sp. (see appendix). A side trip by 
a detached topographical party to the rugged peak named by Capt. — 
Jones “ Washakee’s Needles” revealed, in a few fragments brought 
back by the party, a more distinct alpine flora than any yet seen, 
including Douglasia montana Gray, and a most singular depressed — 
Townsendia, with its large single heads immersed in a globular 
mass of lanulose coated leaves. This, as far as the imperfect 
material affords the means of judging, is probably an undescribed 
species, to which the name of Townsendia condensata, n. sp., may 
be provisionally applied. In the lower mountain ranges there is & 
succession of charming subalpine meadows, set off with limpid 
lakes and traversed by clear ice-cold brooks, which, among othe 

- well known plants, furnished the following additions to our list, 
viz: Astragalus oroboides Hornem., @nothera breviflora Torr. and 
Gray, Aplopappus inuloides Torr. and Gray, Artemisia incompta 
Nutt., and the singularly neat European species Myosotis alpestris 
L. In the valley of Stinking Water (a most inappropriate name fé 
a clear mountain stream abounding in the finest trout), at a singl 
locality, was collected the rare Chenopodiaceous plant character- 
ized by Dr. Torrey as Endolepis Suckleyi Torr. This, in the un- 
| published revision of this family by Mr. S. Watson, is to M 
included in the genus Atriplex (A. Ehdolepis Watson, ined.). The 
excellent figure of this plant in Vol. xii, pl. 3, of “ Pacific Railroad 
Reports,” only fails to represent the straggling habit, de 
divaricate branches and the blistered, mealy-dusted leaves of 
. Species. It seems to affect a peculiar soil, so strongly im 
nated with saline ingredients as to be entirely bare of all 


: botanical interest to attract the attention. The prevalent r o 
_ Were composed of a coarse igneous conglomerate, which weathet 
_ Into the most fantastic shapes, presenting on either hand sharp 
Pinnacles, toppling columns and chimney peaks; but the unifi : 
~ ty of soil derived from its disintegration was unfavorable to 
o rich development of floral forms. We accordingly note briefly 


BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 107 


following as most abundant and characteristic: Arenaria pun- 
gens Nutt., var. Astragalus microcystis Gray, Heuchera cylindrica 
Dougl., Bahia leucophylla DC., Stephanomeria paniculata Nutt. 

On jinbi the upper portion of this valley, becoming more 
densely wooded, and frequently spreading out into open, grassy 
parks, a much more attractive and varied flora is brought to view. 
The pine woods, composed almost exclusively of Pinus contorta, 
with scattering trees of Abies grandis, and in the drier mountain 
slopes of Abies Douglasii, overshadow thick moss-bedded festoons 
of Linnea borealis, associated with Pyrola minor L., and occa- 
sionally the more peculiar western form of Pyrola dentata Hook. 

ere too occurs abundantly Antennaria racemosa Hook., with 
sterile and fertile plants growing in distinct plots; scanty speci- 
mens were also collected of what is probably the little known An- 
tennaria luzuloides Torr. and Gray. Everywhere on the moist, > 
wooded slopes is a thick undergrowth of Vaccinium myrtilloides 

Mx. Rhamnus is represented by the well known northern form 
of Rhamnus alnifolius L. Her., and on the margins of ice-cold 
springs we meet with Mimulus moschatus Dougl. In ascending 
the higher mountain peaks, the rocky crags are brilliantly adorned 
with clumps of Pentstemon deustus Dougl., or the more showy 
_ Pentstemon Menziesii Hook. Along the borders of alpine brooks, 
together with the wide-spread Mertensia Sibirica Dougl., we meet 
with the showy Mimulus Lewisii Ph., so interesting in its associa- 
tion with the early explorer Lewis. Mitella trifida Gray is here 
found associated with the more common Mitella pentandra Hook. 
In similar localities, strangely remote from their original habitat, 
` we meet with Zauschneria Californica Presl and Kellogia galioides 
Torr.! Near the bald alpine summits, where the ground is satu- 
‘tated from the recent melting of snow-drifts, grows the “ Cali- 
fornia heath,” Bryanthus empetriformis Gray, and here also at the 
‘Most eastern locality yet noted was found a dwarf form of 
Spraguea umbellata Torr. The occurrence of so many peculiar 
Californian forms in such an isolated locality on the Atlantic slope 


On the high alpine crest at the head of Stinking Water, over- 
looking to the west the Yellowstone basin and its magnificent 
. lake, a a more alpine flora is exhibited, though composed mainly of 
‘dwarfed forms of plants met with lower down, as may be seen © 
f > ae | list, noted down —— 2, viz: Arabis Drum- 


Ns having the rump immaculate white, instead of spotted. 


108 AMERICAN WATER BIRDS. 


mondii Gray, Arabis canescens Nutt., Draba alpina L., Smelowskia — 
calycina ©. A. Mey., Arenaria arctica Stev., Ivesia Gordoni Torr. — 
and Gray, Potentilla dissecta Pursh, Astragalus alpinus L., Astrag- 
alus Kentrophyta Gray, Lupinus minimus Dougl., Sedum stenope- 
talum Ph., Townsendia (not determined as to species. No. 145) 
Erigeron compositum Ph., Senecio canus Hook., Achilea millefolium 
L., Phlox Douglasii Hook., Polemonium humile var. (P. parvifolium 
Nutt.), Mertensia alpina Dougl., Myosotis alpestris L., Eriogonum 
ovalifolium Nutt. ; 
In a concluding article, the general botanical features of Yel- 
lowstone Park and the head waters of Snake and Wind Rivers will 
be considered. 
TE.—In order to render the determination of the new species mentioned in this 


N 
and the Desbeatug paper as TO as Paa and most Convenio for reference, 
- the descriptions will be giy 


NOTES UPON AMERICAN WATER BIRDS. 


BY ROBERT RIDGWAY. 


Tux following are a few pointe which have been developed } 


“ History of North peok Birds,” by Professor Baird, 1 
Brewer and the writer. They are published in advance of ¢ 
work, that ornithologists may thus the sooner have the benefit 
them. 
i In making a comparative study of the North American e : 
ropean Grallæ, I have been struck by a very curious pars 
~ between certain congeneric or conspecific forms of the two 
nents. In many cases, the European analogues differ from 
North American representatives chiefly, if not ‘ie Te 


lowing SRD will show the extent of this — 
eave bad lad occasion to trace it. 


American forms (rump spotted). European forms (rump i 
Perenn solitarius. R. ochropus. 
a flay G. stagnatilis. _ 


N. phæopus. 


AMERICAN WATER BIRDS. 109 


Egialitis microrhynchus Ridgway. N. se. Winter plumage 
similar to that of Æ. semipalmatus, but the cheeks white up to 
the eye, the white of the forehead less distinctly defined, grading 
insensibly into the gray posteriorly, and anteriorly reaching to the 
bill. Two outer tail feathers white, with a blackish transverse 
spot across the inner web. Much more slender than Æ. semipal- 
matus, and the bill of entirely different form, being short and 
exceedingly attenuated. Wing, 4°35; tail, 2°50; culmen, "50 ; 
depth of bill, -10; tarsus, 1°00; middle toe, °65. Type, No. 
39,523, Nat. Mus., San Francisco, Cal.; E. F. Lorquin. 

Agialitis melodus, var. circumcinctus Ridgway. Breeding 
plumage similar to var. melodus, but the black pectoral band 
complete across the jugulum, instead of being interrupted in the 
middle portion. Wing, 4°60; tail, 2°30; culmen, 50; tarsus, 
‘85; middle toe, °55. Type, No. 9,035, ¢ ad., Nat. Mus., Loup 
Fork of the Platte, July 8; Dr. F. V. Hayden. Length, 64; 
extent, 14}. Habitat. Plains between the Missouri River and 
Rocky Mountains. 

The restricted var. melodus is found only in the Atlantic States. 

Aigialitis Wilsonius, var. rufinucha Ridgway. Similar in color 
to var. Wilsonianus, but the tints much darker; sub-orbital 
region dusky, instead of whitish; occiput of the male deeply 
rufous: frontal white band narrower than the black one bebind it. 
Wing, 4°50; tail, 2-25; culmen, ‘80; tarsus, 1:20; middle toe, 
‘70. Type, No. 30,319, 3, April, 1863, and 26,853, 9, Dec. 20, 
1861, Spanishtown, Jamaica; W. T. March. Habitat. Jamaica. 

Egialitis cantianus Lath., var. nivosus Cassin. (Ægialitis can- 
tianus Coues, Key, p. 245.) ‘This bird is distinguishable from 
the European form by the lores being destitute of a black stripe, 
‘instead of having a quite conspicuous one. 

<Egialitis montanus Towns. (Ægialitis Asiaticus var. montanus 
Coues, Key, p. 245.) This species proves to be very distinct from 
an that of Asia, to to which Dr. Coues referred it on the authority of 


Bentsionss our species having no pectoral black belt. 

ialitis hiaticu’a Linn., var. semipalmatus Bonap. The Amer- 
i ican bird differs from the European merely in lacking the white 
dhl peal mpar in narrower paren band, and in its slightly 


110 AMERICAN WATER BIRDS. 


Gallinago acolopacina Bonap., var. Wilsonii Bonap. The — 
American form of this species is distinguishable from the Euro- 
pean merely by slight differences in proportion, being smaller in 
general measureménts, especially in length of bill and tarsus, 
with comparatively longer wing. 

The G. nobilis Scl. and Salv., of northern South America, @. 
Parague Vieill., of the southern portion of the same continent, 
and G. Australis Lath. of Australia, seem to be also referrible to 
the same species, though slightly distinguished by the attenuation _ 
of the outer tail feathers, thereby showing an approach to G. ste- 
nura Kuhl, of the Malayan region, which, — has w 
six, instead of fourteen to eighteen rectrices. 

Limosa rufa Temm., var. uropygialis Gould. The -differenti 
between this race and that of Europe are very slight. The Alas- 
kan bird is merely paler colored on the lower surface, and has the 
axillars and rump with dusky prevailing, instead of mostly whi 

Ibis falcinellus (Linn.). (Ibis Ordii Bonap. et Auct.)- The 
glossy Ibis of the West Indies and the eastern United States I 
absolutely indistinguishable from that of Europe. A close exam: 
ination of nearly a hundred American specimens, reveals the fi 
that this continent contains at least one, and probably two, § 
cies distinct from the I. falcinellus or I. ** Ordii.” 

The three species found in America may be distinguished 
follows : — 


A. ate the head, neck and Jower parts chestnut. BA gaa! with these 

streaked talli the upper 

varying 1 lights of purple, violet and. green, the lesser wing coverts with a 
chestn 

a. Head dusky around the base of the bill, — is dull man in the 

Habitat. Od W World, West Indies, and Eastern U. S I 

b. Head white all around the base of the bill, whieh is dusky red in the 

Habitat. Whole of tropical America, nso ddle waded’ # v 

‘Chili and Buenos Ayres to the see 


B. A dult ttt he 


me of the Baie spec 
metallic reflections of the upper parts of a tA cari hade of vivid bronzed. 
coverta without t a chestnut patch. Habitat. Pacific coast of Ber 


Californ 
ar S 


rigs 


Other c ers of as gioii importance accompany th 

while their Moleon is shown by large serigs of each 
The chief Synonymy of these species stands as follows :— 
1. Tantalus falcinellus Linn., S. N. 1., 241. (Ibis Ordi P 5 
List, 1 1838, Baird, B. N. Am., 1858, p. 685. In part onl 


AMERICAN WATER BIRDS. 111 


2. Scolopax guarauna Linn., S. N. 1.,242. (Tantalus chalcop- 
terus Temm. pl. col. “ Tbis Ordii Bonap.,” Baird, B. N. Am., 1858, 
p. 685. ` ??? Tantalus Mexicanus Gmel., S. N. 1., 1788, 652.) 

3. Ibis guarauna Baird, B. N. Am., 1858, pl. Ixxxvii. Id. 
Catal. N. Am. B., No. 500a. Ibis thalassinus Ridgway, Rep. 
U. S. Geol. Expl. 40th par. (In press.) 
| Rallus elegans, var. obsoletus, Ridgway. Differing from var. ele- 
gans in being more grayish above, where the stripes are nearly 
obsolete, and dark brown, instead of deep black on a yellowish 
olive ground. Rufous of the lower parts paler and duller. Wing, 
6:30 ; tail,3:50 ; culmen, 2-25; bill, -50 deep at base ; tarsus, 2°10; 
middle toe, 2°00. Type, 6,444, San Francisco, Cal., March, 1857 ; 
Dr. Suckley. Habitat. Coast of California. 

Rallus elegans var. tenuirostris Lawrence. Similar in colors to 
var. elegans, but smaller, and with very much slenderer bill. 
Wing, 5-90; tail, 3°25; culmen, 2-00; bill, -35,deep at base ; tar- 
sus, 1-80; middle toe, 1°70 (No. 52,849, Valley of Mexico; Col. 
À. J. Grayson). Type, from city of Mexico, in cabinet of Mr. 
Lawrence. 

Porzana Jamaicensis, var. coturniculus Baird. Differing from 
var. Jamaicensis of seutheastern United States, West Indies 
and South America, in smaller size, and more uniform colors, 
Back without white specks. Wing, 2°50; culmen, ‘52; bill, 15 
deep at base; tarsus, 80; middle toe, -80. Type, No. 12,862 
Nat. Mus., Farallone Islands, coast of California; T. G. Martin. 
Habitat. Farallone Islands, California. 

Anas obscura, var. fulvigula Ridgway. Differing from var. 
obscura in lighter and much less uniform colors, and unstreaked 
deep buff throat. Deep ochraceous borders to the feathers very 
broad, on the lower surface almost as wide as the dusky medial 
streaks. Wing, 10°30; tail, 5-00; culmen, 2-05; width of the 
bill. -90; tarsus, 1°70; middle toe, 1°90. Bill olive color (olive- 
yellow in life?) ; feet, deep orange-red. Type, No. 1,748, Mus. 
R. Ridgway, St. John’s river, Florida. C.J. Maynard. Habitat. 
Florida ; permanent resident. 

A specimen in the National Museum (No. 61,360) from the St. 
John’s River, collected by Mr. G. A. Boardman, is exactly similar. 


NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN © 
EUROPE. 


BY W. G. FARLOW, M.D. 
0 


PART Il. NORWAY, ETC. 


I LANDED at Christiania upon a high holiday, one rather striking 
to a pilgrim from the new world. The people were celebrating 
the two thousandth birth-day of Norway! I found Professor 
Schiibeler at home; and the next day he showed me through t 
Botanic Garden and the University. Although the Garden is 
poor enough compared with that of Lund, yet it is good consid- 
ering the latitude, and the conservatories appeared to be as large 
and as well filled as those at Cambridge. The university buildings 
are well situated, and I should think more extensive than those at 
Cambridge. The Professor is a man of boundless energy, and is 
making the most of narrow means and a poor climate. He gav 
me a list, by no means a long one, of all the American tree 
the garden. It would be an easy and excellent thing for 
American correspondent to double and triple their number. + 
and cones are desired rather than young plants, for obvio 
reasons. There is the same confusion in-the north of Europe 
our two spruces as that which prevails, or till lately prevail é 
the nurseries and plantations at home. The plantation of a 
alba” which Professor Agardh showed me at Lund was most 
fruit, and every tree of it A. nigra; while here, Prof. Schü 

only tree of “ Abies nigra,” ‘also in fruit, proved to be Abies 
The herbarium here is of no special consequence. 

= What most interested me, besides a few alge given me 
os Lyngbye’s collection, valuable as souvenirs, was a museum of 
A economical products of Norway, especially the grains, 
_ prepared by the present Professor; and a very interesting 
ade by him of the arable lands of Norway. The cu 

: ds appeared as mere lines, almost as narrow as the 
ae a map. As I subsequently found, fully nine-tenths of the 
- Bon of steep rocky mountains, and only the banks of t 
e. The perseverance of the people is wonderful 

t at all lev w is EN cultivated. Tracts of half 


NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 113 


of an acre, up on the sides of the mountains, are covered with 
barley ; and available spots on-the tiords, accessible only by some 
miles of hard rowing, are planted with oats. The grain is stacked 
in little heaps in the fields and a sort of rail fence is made to which - 
the hay is fastened to dry. In many places the hay has to be car- 
ried down the mountains on the peasants’ backs. I can’t imagine 
how they get hay enough to keep their cattle through the winter. 
Southern Norway, moreover, is more like New England than any 
country I have seen, only more mountainous. The houses are 
wooden and painted white, and there are rail fences. Cherries and 
a very few apples are the only fruits. The wild strawberries are 
delicious, but the natives prefer the molteberry whieh is quite in- 
sipid. It flourishes high*up in’ the mountains where only Saliw. 
glauca and Betula nana grow. I was surprised to fipd that the 
Abies excélsa, or Norway spruce, is not a mountain tree. It is not 
a handsome tree till you reach the valleys of southern Norway. 
Pinus sylvestris grows ‘alone on the higher mountains and is far 
from beautiful. The poverty of the forests in species is PONE: 
nothing but birches, alders, and ohe or two Conifers. ~ 

The herbaceous plants were more varied, and very attractive to 
_ me; possibly the’ more so because I had to puzzle them out with 
the only book I had, Hartmann’s Flora in Swedish, which I can’t 
read, but could guess at the botanical terms. Fortunately at the 
top of the’ Fille-field I met a botanist who spoke a little German. 
- Erica tetralix is to me the most beautiful plant in Norway. Digi- 

talis purpurea here grows on the edge of the glaciers and Gentiana 
nivalis by the roadside. Aconitum septentrionale abounds every- 
where. I was surprised to find that the hood of every flower, in a 
hundred or more I examined, had been perforated by some insect, 
which in this way sought the honey. 

I hoped to find some good algz, especially a Molde, but was 
unsuccessful. After two days’ contemplation of Fucus nodosus 
` and vesiculosus in various forms, I passed on to Bergen, the 
rainiest town- in Norway and, I believe, in the world. There the 
-= Water is warmest when the wind is north, owing to the Gulf 
. , and, whichever way the wind | a the odors | "r hor- 
rible. 

-As to the scenery, it is always Jee caine very grand. 
=~ The Romsdal is a very wild and gloomy pass about twenty miles 
a long, and perfectly ipg with mrar waterfalls and cascades. 

oS e ee VOL. VII. 


'_ who has travelled and collected largely in Mandchuria and J: 


' S have nothing to say botanically ; and the same of the conti! 
_ Tailway j journey of one thousand ‘three hundred miles from 4 
m; 


` narrowness of the valleys: From Bergen, I went up the Hardan- 


- ing into a beautiful lake; and a glacier in the vicinity, the first 


choice herbarium at the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 


still young he has a high reputation as a botanist, and is an ee 


English with facility. My special object was to examine the 
oe northwest America described by Ruprecht. These are ‘in| 
oo ‘Acadlemy’s herbarium, in the condition in which they were 

coe him, — much arrangement. 
ais 


“gust that the three emperors were expected in two days, | 


114 NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 


The peaks are sharper than anywhere else and covered with snow. 
The view of the Romsdal mountains from Molde is the finest distant 
view I saw in Norway, where distant views are scarce owing to the 


ger Fiord and into the Sér Fiord to Odde. The fiords are the finest 

things in Norway, mountains two or three thousand feet high,- 
sometimes more, coming straight down into the greenest of water. 

You sail on for hundreds of miles, the scenery varying from grand | 
to grander. The Sor Fiord is particularly fine, the water is narrow — 
and the mountains black and steep, with the Folgefond glacier on 
one side hanging over the cliffs, and coming down the ravines. — 
From Odde I visited the Skaggindal foss, a pretty waterfall pours 


I had ever seen close at hand. . Notwithstanding all I had read - 
and ‘heard I was astonished at the color of the ice which, without 
exaggeration, was as deep as sulphate of copper. It advanced 
fifty feet last year. - 
At St. Petersburg the attractions for the botanist centre in the , 
Botanical Garden, with its twenty-five well filled ‘conservatories, 
collection of hardy plants and trees of remarkable extent, cons 
ering the climate, and a large herbarium and library attached —all 
under the immediate care of Dr. Regel, formerly of Zurich, a sti- 
entific botanist as well as gardener. Dr. Trautvetter, however? 
the/ official head of the: establishment. There is a smaller b 


since Ruprecht’s death has been in charge of Dr. Maximo 
and is now engaged upon a flora of the latter country. 


rable man. To add to my satisfaction and comfort, he sp 


w, with its domes and shrines and dingy “ne 


to Berlin, without sleeping cars. On arising I found to | 


-room to > be Dii s hotel. At length, however, I sane 


sy 
=: 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 115 


ing close to the Linden. On calling at Professor Braun’s I learned 
that he was in Brandenburg, happily away from the heat and 
crowd. Never before have I so suffered with the heat, which for 
six days has been intense; so great that walking was almost im- 
possible, and the dust made the riding almost insufferable. The 


crowd has been growing greater and greater, but culminated last 


night when there was a serenade by seven hundred musicians in 
front of the palace. I think I should enjoy Berlin in winter, but 
now I am tired of the heat and dust,and emperors; and shall 
leave at once for Cologne on my way to Strasburg. 


, REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


New German Boranicat Manvats.* —The two botanical text- 
books named below have now superseded all others in Germany. 
The first, uniform with`a zoology by the same author, is admira- 
bly adapted for schools and colleges, being compact, clearly and 
concisely written, and copiously illustrated with woodcuts. All 
the subjects of any general botanical interest are touched upon, 
and, for this reason, it is an excellent book for amateurs who wish 
to keep up to the present state of the science without taking the 
time and trouble necessary for learning, practically, microscopic | 
and systematic details. The greatest ea in botany, recently, © 
has been made in the departments of anatomy and lower crypto- 
gams where, unfortunately, more knowledge of the microscope is 
necessary than is possessed by the majority of botanical readers. 
In the book of Thorné, the frequent woodcuts take the place of 
microscopic work as far as such a thing is possible. On the 


_ Whole, this is the best a botanical text-book which has 


gm been published in Germ 

_ The second work, Priam ee a text-book, partakes sol 
more of the character of an encyclopedia. In consequence partly 
of the high reputation of the writer as a vegetable physiologist, the 
book has had an “almost unprecendented sale, the third edition 


ae being already nearly exhausted and a separate edition of the 
Second mk relating to vegetable physiology, having just made its 


orr Lehrbuch der Botanik von Dr. Otto Wilhelm Toms abe: mifage 1872. Lehrbuch 


on Prof. Julius Sachs. ste 


. ] = or are not thought worth his trouble. Huckleberries and 


t 


116 BOTANY. 


appearance. -The proportion of those who buy the book and ac- 
. tually read it; however, is decidedly smaller than in the case of the 
first mentioned book. It is a work which. gives an excellent 
summary of the present state of botany as it exists in Germany, a 
particularly, of the results of recent studies in the- ¢ryptogams, — 1 
and, as such, is a valuable book of reference for the special student’ 
and professor. It is much too intricate and fall of microscopic 
details to be easily intelligible to the general reader. It is by no 
means the case; as some suppose, that the average botanical 
student in- Germany .is ina condition to profit by Sachs 
Lehrbuch. In many places, without previous study of the lower 
forms of vegetable life, the book is quite ee The 
text and woodcuts are excellent. —W. G. F 


Tue Mortusks or Western Norra AMERICA.* — Under this | 
title Dr. Carpenter reprints the reports‘ made by him to the British : 

3 Association, with other papers, which will make the volume of much 4 
value to mmalacologiste. > 


BOTANY. 
- . WERE THE Faorre MADE FOR MAN, OR pip MAN MAKE THE 
Fruits ?—These need not be taken as mutually exclusive propo- 
. Sitions ; for as “ God helps those who help themselves,” and man 
work i in this respect is mainly, if not wholly, im directing 
course or tendency of Nature, so there is a just sense in which we 
may say “ the art itself is Nature,” by which the greatest triumph’ 
of horticultural skill have been accomplished. Moreover Is 
“not one of those naturalists who would have: you believe t 
nothing which comes by degrees, and in the course of nates 
_ to be attributed to Divine power.: . 
ees answer I should give to the question, as we thus put it, is: 
sL Some fruits were given to man as they are, and he has only 
S and consumed them. But these are all minor fruits, 
such as have only lately come within the reach of civilized 


_ Ties, persimmons and papaws are examples, taken from = 
- Country. Whether even such fruits have or have not been 

a course of i improvement, irrespective of man, is another que 
E EEO 3 


n us Collecti 252. Washington, Dec- o pp: 


q 
4 
‘ 
k 
: 
i 


et a OE, 


BOTANY. 117 


2. Others hive come to man full flavored, and nearly all that he 
has done has been to increase their size and abundance, or extend ° 
their season. Currants and gooseberries, raspberries and black- 
berries, chestnuts, and above all, strawberries, are of this class. 

3. But most of the esteemed and important fruits, as well as 
the grains, have not so much been given to man as:made by him. 
The gift outright was mainly plastic—raw material, time and op- 
portunity. -As to the cereal grains, it is only of the oat that we 
probably know the wild original; of wheat there has been an 
ingenious conjecture, ‘partly, but insufficiently, confirmed by ex- 
periment ; of the rest, no wild stock is known which is not most 
likely itself an escape from cultivation. Of some of them, such 
especially as maize, not only can no wild original be indicated, 
but in all probability none exists. 

So of the staple fruits; of some the wild dttataale can be pretty 
well made out; of more, they are merely conjectural; of some 
they are quite unknown and perhaps long ago extinct. 

To cite examples in confirmation or illustration of these points, — 
to note how very ancient some of our varieties of- common fruits 
are, and how very recent certain others—to consider how they have 
originated, with or without man’s conscious agency, and how they 
have been perfected, diversified and preserved, mainly under man’s 
direct care—would be to expand this note into an essay, and yet 
to say nothing with which pomologists are not familiar. 

It would be curious to speculate as to what our pomology would ‘ 
have been if the civilization from which it, and we ourselves, have 


“sprung had had _its birthplace along the southern shores of our 


great lakes, the northern of the Gulf of Mexico, and the inter- 


’ vening Mississippi, instead ‘of the Levant, Mesopotamia and the 


Nile, and, our old world had been open to us as a new world less 
than four hundred years ago. 
Seemingly, we should not have as great a variety of choice 


_ fruits as we have now, and they would mostly have been different, l 


but probably neither scanty nor poor. In grapes, at least, we 


= should have been gainers. Our five or six available species, of 
Which we are now just beginning to know the capabilities, would 


have given us at least as many choice sorts and as wide a diversity 


-a8 we now have of pears; while pears would be a recent acquisition, 
a somewhat as our American grapes now are. Our apples would 
have been developed from Pyrus coronaria: and might have 


_, toes, sweet potatoes, and “Jerusalem ” (that is, girasola or 

= flower) artichokes : the last supplemented by our grou 
~ (Apios tuberosa) would have been the first developed eset 
__, tubers, and would probably have held their place in the first 


oF Among the causes and circumstances which have given 
fruits of temperate climates of the old world their preémi 


S - veloped in this country we know not, and now shall never kı 


_ though perhaps not in variety, if it be true, as Karl Koch sup- A 
' poses, that the apples of the orchards are from three or four spe- 


118 BOTANY. 


equalled anything we actually possess from Pyrus Malus in flavor, 


cies. At least one of our wild hawthorns, Crateegus tomentosa, in 
some varieties, bears a large and delicately flavored fruit, evidently : 
capable of increase in size; it might have been in the front rank 
of pomaceous fruits. In a smaller way our service-berry would 
have been turned to good account. Our plums would have been 
the progeny of the Chicasa, the beach plum, and our wild red and 
yellow Prunus Americana, which have already shown great capacity 
for improvement; our cherries might. have been as well flavored, : 
but probably not as large as they now are. But instead of peaches — 
and figs, we should be discussing manifold and most luscious vari: 
eties of persimmon and papaw, the former probably equal to the 
kaki just acquired from the far east. As to strawberries, goose- 
berries and currants, we should have lost nothing and gaine 
something, as we possess several species besides the European 
types themselves; as to blackberries and raspberries we should — 
have been better off than now, by the earlier development & 
diversification of our indigenous species. And we might have 
all our finest strawberries a thousand or more years ago, these 
having come from our American types, Fragaria Virginian with 
its varieties (which, as well as the old world F. vesca, occurs all 
across the continent), and F. Chilensis which ascends the Pac 
coast to Oregon. 7 é a 
Then we should consider how much earlier our race, with 
American birthplace, would have been in possession of tomat 
of the pineapple, of the cherimoyer and the other custard app 
of the star-apples and other sapotaceous fruits, of chocolate, 
‘Lima beans in all their varieties, of peanuts ; not to speak of 


along with potatoes and sweet potatoes of later acquisition. 


opportu: nity is one. ; How many potential fruits of value lie 7 


iey have lost their opportunity. Necessity, which is the # 


BOTANY. 119 


of pomology as well as of other invention, has been fully supplied 
out, of other accessible, and in some Gases no doubt — 
better, materials. 

There are some, however, for which evidently ‘a good time is 
coming.” Of these, our wild grapes are foremost. ‘They have 
such a start already, and seedlings, whether from crosses or other- 
wise, can be produced and selected and reproduced in so short a 
space of time, that they will probably have achieved their position 


when the American Pomological Society holds its centennial cele- 


bration. 

Blackberries, from Rubus villosus, are in similar case; and if 
due attention be paid to the low blackberry or dewberry, and to 
the sand blackberry of New Jersey and farther south, the founda- 


_ tion for a greater diversity of excellent sorts will be laid. 


As to cranberries, already an important staple, increase of size 
and abundance of production are all that are to be expected. It 
is easier to bring about improvements in the direction of sweetness 
than in that of acidity. Huckleberries, also, have probably nearly 
reached their perfection unassisted. 

A few wild fruits may be mentioned which manifestly have great 
capabilities, that may or may not be developed in the future. The 
leading instances in my mind are the persimmon and the papaw,— 
not the true papaw, of course, which we have in Florida, but the 
Asimina or western papaw, so called. Both persimmons and 
papaws are freely offering, from spontaneous seedlings, incipient 
choicer varieties to be selected from; both fruit when only a few 
years old, thereby ~accelerating the fixation of selected varieties 
into races; and both give fruits-of types wholly distinct from any 
others we possess of temperate ‘climates. He that has not tasted 

a kaki has no conception of the capabilities of the Diospyros 
genus. The chaid apples of the West Indies give some idea of 
what might be made of our papaw, when ameliorated by cultiva- 


- tion and close selection from several generations. I have under- ` 
stood that one of the veteran pomologists of the country, Dr. 


Kirtland, of Ohio, a good while ago initiated a course of experi- 
ments upon the papaw in this regard; it would be well to know 


2 2 with what success, and whether the breeding and selection have 


been continued through successive generations. 
Our American plums, already mentioned, have for many years 


| T some sort of catia and have sae upon the me 


ww 


120 o ee 


forms ; but I suppose they have not been systematically attended 
to. Their extreme liability to black-knot and other attacks renders 
them for the present unpromising. 

Finally, if pomology includes mith, there is a promising field- 
uncultivated. Our wild chestnuts are sweeter than those of the- 
old world; it would be well to try whether races might not be 
developed with the nuts as large as marrons or Spanish chestnuts, 
and without diminution of flavor. If we were not too easily sat- 
isfied with a mere choice among spontaneous hickory. nuts, we 
might have much better and thinner shelled ones. Varying a8 
they do excessively in the thickness of the shell and in the size 
and flavor of the kernel, they aré inviting your attention, and 
promising to reward your care. The pecan is waiting to have the 
bitter matter between the shell and the kernel bred out ; the but- 
ternuts and black walnuts to have their excess of oil turned into 
‘farinaceous and sugary matter, and their ‘shells thinned and 
smoothed by continued good breeding; when they will ogo sur- 
pass the European walnut. 

All this requires time, almost unlimited time ; but it is not for 
` those who are enjoying the fruits which it has taken thousands 
years to perfect, to refrain. from the good work which is to increase 
, the enjoyments of far future 2 pet ‘Gray, in Horti 
 elturiii. 


/ 


-= 


ae 


? ZOOLOGY. 

CAPTURE OF A GIGANTIC SQUID AT Eia pr 
the following letter from Mr. Murray, of the Canadian Geolog 
a Bere, kindly forwarded to us by Professor Agassiz shortly be 
a — fore his death : an 
: Sr. J. NEWFOUNDLAND, Nov. 10, 1873. 


“My Deas Sir :—The following account of a remarkable marine 
. monster, which made its appearance off the shores of this islan¢ 
` and of a severed arm or tentacle of the same, now in my poss 
m on) I dare say be interesting to you, and also to Prof. 4 
as m I should like to offer it. 
Oi or pen the 25th of October last, while a man by the: 
ae ‘aon Picot was engaged at his usual occupation of 


ae 


_ water, which ata distance he supposed to be a sail, or the 
“of some wreck, but which proved upon nearer inspection to 
: dowed with T life. age on worl that the object was 


t 


ZOOLOGY. 121 


satisfy his curiosity pushed his boat alongside, and I believe 
struck at it with an oar or boat-hook, whereupon the creature’s fury 
seemed to be aroused, and it struck at the bottom of the bout with 
its beak, and immedistely afterward threw its monstrous tentacles 
over the boat, which probably it might have dragged to the bottom 
had not Picot with great presence of mind severed one (or more) of 
the tentacles with his axe. A part of this tentacle or sucking arm 

have now in my possession, immersed in spirits. I send you with 
this letter a couple of photographs of the said tentacle and a few 
of the small denticulated sucking cups, all of which I hope will 
reach you safely. ; 

Picot’s description of this great’ squid, cuttle or devil-fish is 
this. He represents the body of the animal to have been about 
sixty feet long, and its general diameter as not less than five 
feet. The breadth of the tail he represents as at least ten feet. 


- He states that when the creature found itself mutilated it made off 


backwards or tail foremost, after the manner of squids, dark- 
ening the water‘over a large space with inky emissions. The 
enormous proportions given above might appear to be exagger- 
ations, were they not to a great extent borne out by the fragment 
of the animal which was severed, and of which the photograph will 


‘ give you a fair idea. The tentacle measured, on the 31st of Oc- 


have measured nineteen feet previously. When it was first landed ` 


at a place called Portugal Cove, in Conception Bay and within nine 
miles of St. John, some six feet was cut off the inner end of this 


arm, and Picot asserts that the original incision was at least ten 


feet from its articulation with the b Accordingly the whole 
length of the said arm must have been from t irty-three to 
thirty-five feet. The beak or bill of the creature Picot described 
as being about the size of a six gallon keg. bee" 

The Rev. Mr. Gabriel now residing at Portugal Cove, but who 
formerly resided at a place called Lamalein on the south coast of 
the island, states that, in the winter of 1870 and 1871, two entire 
cuttle or devil-fish were stranded on the beach near that, place, 
which measured respectively forty and forty-seven feet. 

The man Picot says he saw the animal very distinctly for some 


` time after it had been mutilated, swimming stern foremost with its 


tail above the water’s edge, and that its general color wasa pale 


pinkish, resembling that of the common squid. 
` The follo 


wing is an exact copy of the memoranda I made on 
first inspecting this remarkable tentacle on the 31st of October. 


-two and one-half feet is flattened, and somewhat in shape like a 
-~ - narrow paddle, tapering toward the end to a sharpish point. The 


: S 
a Y 


È 


122 ZOOLOGY. 


ş k 

thickest — of this terminal appendage is about six inches in 
circumfere 
The inner aa and one-half feet is rounded in form, va- 
rying in thickness from three and one-half to four inches in di- 
' ameter, or about the size of an ordinary man’s wrist. On what 
I shall call the ventral side of this fourteen and one-half feet, 
_ there is a set of small tubercles'or mammillary processes, which, — 
at the end nearest the articulation, are about two feet apart, but 
become much closer and more numerous towards the extremity. 
_ Some small valve-like sucking denticulated cups are distributed 
a along the area near the tubercles. Examples of these you “i 
find in the small pill-box. 
At the extreme point of the paddle-shaped extremity, and also 
at its pea with the rounded part, there is a cluster of s 

denticu 


Fig. 44. 
a 


~ 


? f the arm is 0 
a, dorsal ridge; b, flanges of thin memb: dle part o 
¢, ventral tubercles. te ee follow wing ie some 


Y 


ar sir, yours ve ery pta 

o “Te following second letter from Mr. ater to Prof. a as 
ue seems to refer to another individual, but much smaller :— 
at eet you with this two photographs of the creature a 
e being the head and tentacles, the pee the 


ee iptive memoranda are as follows :— 
toh Bay 3 near Si John, Newfoundland, Nov, 187 


ZOOLOGY. 128 


length of body seven feet, circumference five feet, tail fan-shaped, 
pointed at the middle extremity, and between extremes of ex- 
tended appendages measures upwards of two feet. Two tubes run 
the whole length of the body, one of which contains the inky fluid, 
the other water: The eyes of this individual have been destroyed, 
but the socket of one is attached to the neck, the diameter of 
which is four inches. In the centre of the head, there is a pow- 
‘erful beak of black and orange color. In shape the beak exactly 
resembles a parrot’s ; 

Around the head there are eight large arms each from six to 
seven feet in length: two of which are nine inches in circumfer- 
ence ; two of eight inches; and five of seven inches. These ten- 
tacles are covered with suckers on the lower side for their whole 
length, all denticulated, about one hundred sucking cups upon each 
arm. ‘There are also two. long slender tentacles, each measuring 


these Jonger tentacles are paddle-shaped, and armed with about 
eighty denticulated suckers. In this case both the greater and 
the smaller suckers are armed with teeth. 

Photographs taken by Messrs. Parsons and McKenna, St. John, 
on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 1873. A very respectable person, by the name 


feet. He tells me, moreover, that the monsters are edible. 5 
The man Picot who produced the first specimen of a tentacle, 


it was about one-third the entire length of the creature’s body. 
[We would refer our readers to an account of colossal cuttle- 
fishes on p. 87 of vol. vii of this journal, and the notice of Archi- 
teuthis dux found in the North Atlantic. Professor Verrill of 
‘Yale College writes us that he has received both jaws and two 
suckers of the Newfoundland cuttle-fish. The beak, he says, agrees 
nearly with the figure of that of A. duz, on p. 93, of vol. vii, but 
the jaws are somewhat larger, he thinks. — Eps. ] 
A New (?) Zexzrtan Marre Borer.— In the description of a 
supposed new maple borer on page 57 of the January number, I 
recognize an old acquaintance which vies with Chrysobothris 
' femorata in killing the shade maples of the Mississippi Valley, 
and which is not unfrequently found in the eastern states. I have 
been familiar with its work for nine years, and it has long been 


124 GEOLOGY. 


known as Ægeriæ acerni Walker (Trochilium acerni Clem.).— 
GC. V. RILEY, St. Louis, Jan. 20, 1874. 


Tue Anatomy or Worms.—Claparéde’s elaborate posthumous 
work with fifteen plates, on the anatomy of the sea worms, appears 
in the “ Mémoires de la Société de Physique et d’Histoire Naturelle 
of Geneva. ; 

' GEOLOGY. y 

Tae N. W. Wromine Exrepition. — The summer of 1873 isi 
noted for the number of expeditions which were organized for the 
purpose of explorations in the territories, and the almost uniform — 

: success which has resulted, from a scientific point of view. Among 
all of these none has perhaps attracted so little attention as the 
small band which quietly set out from Omaha on the second day of — 
last June, with the purpose of accomplishing, with the smallegt pos- 
sible appropriation, what three successive parties, led by the most 
intrepid and daring explorers of the western country, had Pe 
nounced impossible. 
This expedition, ina tour of some set or nine hundred miles, : 
made a careful topographical, geological and botanical survey of a 
large portion of unexplored territory in N. W. Wyoming, adjacent — 
to the Nationgl Park, and connected the whole with the work 
previous explorers by a complete reconnoissance of the park itself 
The principal geological results have already been’ published a 
outline,* and the writer has prepared a\paper for the NATURALIST, 
relating more especially to the features of the Yellowstone Park, 
I must therefore. content myself, in this place, with a very Di 
account of the most important results of the expedition. 
a - Besides the unravelling, in a great measure, of the compli 
= -mountain system of the great central water-shed of North Ame e 
oe the head waters of the three great rivers. which here diverges 
ee from a focal point,+ were explored and mapped, and several ni 
~ passes were discovered, through the rugged walls of the Si 
Shoshone} mountains. After a successful tour of the whole 
reserved. tract, | luring which ample collections were made 
ended the valley of the Upper Yellowstone River, 
— Water” of Lewis and Clarke, which 


. the 
covering the “Two 


GEOLOGY. 125 


recently been pronounced a myth. This interesting phenomenon 
is nothing more nor less than a mountain stream which, flowing 
down the mountain side, at its base splits quite curiously into two 
distinct streams, one going northerly to the Upper Yellowstone 
River, thence via the Missouri and Mississippi rivers to the Atlantic 
waters ; the other, flowing southerly, reaching the Pacific ocean by 
way of Snake River and the Columbia. 

But the greatest geographical result, as well as the most im- 
portant for other reasons, was the discovery of a pass through the 
Wind River range of mountains, at its northern limit, which ren- 
ders the park accessible from the head of Wind River. This was 
one of the main objects of the expedition, the “impossibility” of 
jts forerunners. 

While it is impossible to give, in detail, the work of the several 
departments, it may be said that all was accomplished in the most 
thorough manner, as the reports will’show when completed. In 
geology, the collections comprise specimens from all of the western » 

_ formations, from the metamorphic rocks to the most recent, in- 
cluding material of volcanic origin and from the drift, as well as 
geyser and hot spring deposits in quantity. Many of the recent 
products are fully as interesting as those of an older date, and the 

` surface and dynamical geology of this region present a vast field 
for study. ans a = 

I have dwelt upon the geology, becatise more specially interested 
in that subject, but the botanical and other results are no less in- 
teresting. No zoölogist accompanied the expedition to collect, 
but Mr. J. D. Putnam, assistant to Dr. Parry, obtained a number 
of insects besides attending to his regular duties. I also noted 
the larger and more common animals which I observed from time 
to time. Dr. Heisman, surgeon to the expedition, collected speci- 
mens of the water and many of the deposits of the springs and 
geysers, for analysis. / i 

For a more extended account of these explorations I must refer ` 
to the articles before mentioned. — Turo. B. Comstock, Geologist. 


-~ Mowxeys IN THE AMERICAN Mrocens.— Prof. Cope, while inves- 
-~ tigating the paleontology of Colorado in connection with Hayden’s 
“geological survey of the territories during the past season, 
detected the remains of what he states to be a quadrumanous mani- 
mal allied to the lemurs. It has been named Menotherium lemur- 


+ 


126 \ MICROSCOPY. \ 


inum, and was as large as the domestic cat, The existence o: 
peculiar forms of lizard, serpents and lemurs. constitutes points 
- of resemblance to the Eocene fauna of Wyoming not previously rec- 
ognized in our Miocene formations. 


Tue Genus Proromrerus.— This form of horse is character- 
ized, according to Leidy, by a peculiarity of the permanent teeth 
which belongs to the temporary teeth of Equus. Prof. Cope has — 

` recently obtained nearly complete skeletons of several species, 

: and finds that like Hippotheriwm they have three toes. He de- 
scribes a new species, P. sejunctus, in which the legs are consider- 

ably longer and the head relatively larger than in the true horse, 

, having thus proportions of body, as well as dentition resembling 

_ the colt. 


Senor’. 


consists eahatixily of a round hole # which the object is wedged, 


-acting beneath. Various forms are to be found that differ in size, 
but agree in principle, that of Beck being, perhaps, as convenieni 
as any, though I have used one consisting of a disk furnished 
` with a graduated series of holes and revolving so that any desire 
5 aperture could be brought over the screw, which, for making 
_ tions of stems was much more desirable. Dr. Hunt of Philade 
phia has the apparatus set in a freezing box, thus making 4 
refrigerating microtome, and by bedding animal structures in 
which expands and fastens them more strongly than parafi 
other compositions used for that-purpose, it answers very weit 
But having occasion to cut a number of plant tissues, especiat 
oe fern. stems, I found it very desirable to have oblique sections 
me show more perfectly the scalariform tissue, and the only way 
z -could VSSA this with the ordinary instrument was t 
: al crease in the flat sides of a split cork, to hold the 
1 ‘inserting the cork, cut the whole as one piece and s0: 
j forog from the cork. - Some tolerable sections were | 
| this way, but the results were generally so unsatisfac 
Twas led to devise a new instrument capable of more adapta 
the nstruction of which is shown in the accompanyl ng 
A and Pettis 5 surfaces ne my instrument of ge 3); 


MICROSCOPY. ; 127 


on two parallelograms of metal, the outside of A carrying lips C ` 
and D, the latter provided with a thumbscrew by which it can be 
fastened to a table. The front ends of A and B in the drawing 
are cut off to show the arrangement of the rods E and F that 
are firmly inserted in A, but permit B to slide freely on them. 
They are threaded on the outer ends and have thumbscrews by 
which B can be pressed to A; the thumbscrew on F not shown. 
H is a sleeve on F forming Fig. 45. 
one end of the curved lever 

_ G, that has a motion regu- l 
lated by the screw J hanging 
from the rod E. 

To use the instrument some 
narrow pieces must be pro- 
vided equal in length to the 
depth of the- instrument. 
These pieces I call blanks, 
and they may be of rubber, 
paper, or wood, slightly thick- 
er than the “stem to be cut, 
which stem should not be 3 : 
more than half as long. A follower is also required as large as the 
stem and so long that with the stem it will reach from the guiding 
surfaces to the lever @, when the latter is pressed down as far as 
I permits. Laying the instrament on its side remove B, lay the 
stem on A, at any desired angle to the guide, bring a blank up to 
it on either side, insert the follower, replace B, screwing it up 
tight, and by the screw J, which should be very fine, the lever G 
forces the follower and stem above the guides as in the old instru- 
‘ments. For animal tissues, they are bedded in soap in little paper 

_ boxes, and when cold the mass is treated as astem. A vessel 
with an inner lip to hold the microtgme, and screw working 
through the bottom, makes jt refrigerating. Longitudinal sections 

Sof wood are beautifully cut, by clasping one end a little tighter. 


Be than the other, against which the follower works, the section thus 


commencing at nothing. Of course a variety of followers and 

blanks can easily be provided to suit various cases, and a little 

- Manual tact is required; but in my hands I find it takes less time 

for manipulation than any other instrument, with a range of work 
=- before impossible. — Wm. H. SEAMAN, Howard University. 


My 


Shiai 


i 


} 
128 NOTES.—ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENT.—BOOKS REC’D. 


N OTES. 
We make the! following extract from Mr. Milne Holme’s a 
address before the Edinburgh Geological Society : — 
“In America every state has its state geologist, with assistants, 
sip duty it is Sen, merely to map discoveries by others, but to 
e researc A specimen of the work done by one of ‘the: 
> ae itate. geologists, I have brought here this evening. I 
aoe far exceeds, in fulness of detail and artistice skill, anything whic 
I have seen produced by our government surveyors.’ 
By the report of the Director of the N ew York Central Ps | 
menagerie, we notice that the number of animals on exhibiti 
during 1873 was eight hundred and six, an increase of two hundre 
and five over the previous year. Among them are a manatee a 
a tapir, the first of the species ever imported to this country. 


Pror. Asa Gray has been appointed one ‘of the Regents of th 
; ‘Smithsonian seers! in place of the late Prof. Agassiz. 


TO CORRESPONDENT. 


H.K. H., Mich. — The caterpillar you sent formed a cocoon in the box and dise 
i the moo — Tolype ve lleda Stoll. 


f 
r 


f 


BOOKS RECEIVED. eee a 
tributions to Solar Physics, Norman Lock er. 8vo, pp. 676. With 175 
an and Co, Price $1000; “London, 187 se na the 

ne the Commissioners o of Fihertes of the State of New Jersey for 


A Afinities the Bront totheride. o. c ogee oe 6.2 


stations i) 
'No. fv) 4 
y Edward S. Mo: ee ee Boston Boe. ] Nat. H 
en gc Soong Boston, 1873. 
S. Geological Survey ar the Territories u Hayden; 
.14. (From Am. Jour. Sei. and - rts, Vol. ary we 1873.) 
ri of the Trustees of ‘the eae Institute of Peabody. BV» 


iman, at the | 
a ia aaa T 
i 7B), 
eos or Pipes PB ster 


Pp. $5. a maps and cover oes ts vert & Fid . Davenport. 
ending de” Darwinschen Lehre auf Bienen be oe = se 


‘alters, Von Samuel H. Scudder, 8vo, 
rawn from one. niformly redu ae one-qua: 
ee ge tio.” Mekina 5. Soh A. Sude ete 
hen geo loots Peet Reichsanstalt. and 


hi 5 
de la. en Ind. Now ie ivo. tome x. June-Sept. 
shes Vast staan Fietd Club. 1872-78. = 
Delesse et de Lapparent. 8vo, pp. 1 

Herr Delesse. ipa 


LT ELS 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vol. VIII.— MARCH, 1874.— No. 3. 
THREE DIFFERENT MODES OF TEETHING AMONG 
SELACHIANS.* 


3 F » 
Ae . BY PROFESSOR LOUIS AGASSIZ. 


Axovt two years ago Mr. Orestes St. John came to the Mu- 
seum of Comparative Zoology with a very large collection of fossil 
fish teeth, with the intention of identifying them and comparing 
them with those which we had in our own collections. This 
came an occasion for me to look over the materials we possess 
In former years Į had paid considerable attention to the subject 
and contributed somewhat to the advancement of our knowl- 
edge in respect to the peculiarities of teeth among the representa- 
“tives of the class of Selachians. I soon found that the progress 
of paleontology and zoology made the present materials on hand 
quite insufficient for the task. It was not known how constant 
-the characters derived from the teeth among § Selachians could be 

considered to be, or, with few exceptions, what changes took 


place with age. So I determined upon the voyage of the Hassler 


~ *This paper is: printed from a , repòrt taken of Professor Agassiz’ rpn 

before the “ National Academy of: Scien ov. 20, 1872 
‘It was the intention of the author €o revise the report for publication in the NATU- 
, and he to do so, the first four pages of the manuscript having 


Ween c corrected during the last two w weeks that Says at hirs museum. The 
s of the lamented author, and 
pave made 1 seed and 


of must be remembered that he would | esse ets h i1 


; labors, — Eps. 


; 2 ; nte: ERRE 
einga Ta rier 
= —— VOL: y. 


130 TEETHING AMONG SELACHIANS. 


to make the collecting of Selachians a principal object of my at- 
tention, and to gathér specimens in greater number than is usu- 
ally the case with animals of these large dimensions. I have 
been richly rewarded for my efforts though it has been at the cost 
of considerable labor. We now possess in the Museum many — 
thousand specimens of Selachians. I do not suppose there is an- _ 
other collection covering so largely the different stages of growth 
of these animals. I have examined these specimens one by one 
and since my return have made a very careful examination of — 
` . one species in several families, in order to have standards of com- 
parison based upon the study of several hundred specimens for 
each family. 
The result of this examination shows that while in their adult 
: condition the Selachians present characters which are very Con- 
a stant among specimens of the same age, such marked changes. 
take place among them during their growth that even genera ha 
been founded on the difference of age. I wish to show first, 
that among the adults we have constancy of character. As an 
example I may take a species of Odontaspis of which I hav 
twenty-five adult specimens. I have selected this genus for s 
cial study on account of its relations to the fossil species of i 
tertiary formation. In Odontaspis the front teeth are placed as 
_ if there were a set of front teeth distinct from the tanine tee! 
and back of them molar teeth of a very different size, all 
—— anche the ‘same ping ghee and ¢ even pe 


esta established, and where the changes are only in the size | 
teeth. There are other genera, on the contrary, in which 
young ma fewer ia and rows of different kinds of teeth 


e is the stefan nieo of development of the teeth 

in which there isse row of teeth standing erect aton 
outer margin of the j jaws, and behind them as many rows © 
wards as s there ar are erect teeth outside. These 


~ 


TEETHING AMONG SELACHIANS. 131 


, functionally used in catching the prey there correspond three, four, 
five, six or seven immature teeth placed one behind the other in the 
- fold of the gum, the youngest occupying the innermost portion. 
These teeth come into play one after another as the front teeth 
drop off. This is the mode of teething among Selachians with 
which all zoologists are familiar, as it occurs among sharks gener- 
ally and among our common skates. The jaw of our large barn- 
door skate, Raja ocellata, for instance, exhibits vertical rows of 
teeth placed one behind the other, as in the sharks, the innermost 
of which are immature, while those along the outer edge of the jaw 
are ready to drop. Soke of these teeth may be so slightly attached 
to the gum that they drop readily, while others are so connected with 
the jaw that they serve their purpose for a longer time. Now in 
Selachians which have this mode of teething the teeth begin to show 
themselves rather late in life. The embryos of these sharks and 
skates do not have teeth, and even after birth the young show very 
imperfect or rudimentary teeth. In some of them, after being for 
some time in the water and providing for their own food, the teeth 
are so imperfectly developed that no row is visible along the edge 


of the jaw ; but when the teeth rise to the margin of the jaw their — 


number. is already fixed and the young teeth are formed in rows 


behind those of the outer series. From that time no other change ' 


takes place except that larger and larger teeth are formed behind 
the old ones as these drop in succession; and as the old ones drop 
the next oldest come into play and so on. 

In Galeocerdo, a genus of much interest to paleontologists, the 
teeth are very uniform in both jaws and more nearly of the same 
size than in other families, while the teeth which are to replace the 
old ones are not much larger, thus showing that these sharks grow 
very slowly. These facts are very important with reference to 


_ the identification of the fossil, species. In younger specimens of- 


this genus there are fewer rows of replacement teeth and they re- 
semble adult teeth much less than they do here. As the jaw en- 
larges with age, the new sets of teeth enlarge, -e and in that 

_ Manner the whole margin is always occupied by tee 
In Cestracion, on the contrary (and der this name a designate 
` the Port Jackson shark and not the hammer-heads), we have a 


n ` totally different mode of teething, the knowledge of which is es- 


sential to a correct PAUE of the zoological value of a vast 
number of f fossil teeth 


ae 


i “i the olden and middle we o 


a “ef another character come in, These remain for a time 


132 _ ‘TEETHING AMONG SELACHIANS. 


ological formations. I have been fortunate enough to secure a 4 
large number of specimens of ‘the Cestracion living along the 
coasts of California, Peru and the Galapagos Islands. I have 
those of Australia also in various stages of growth, so that I could | 
ascertain the mode of dentition of the genus by a comparison of 
different species. In the adult, as is well known, the front teeth | 
are pointed, while the lateral teeth are grinders, and there are 
* grinders with flat surfaces and grinders of different forms, in the 
middle of the jawand behind. What is particularly characteristic i 
of these fishes is that the teeth rest upon the surface of the jaw 
forming flat expanses for chewing, and that many teeth are at work 
at the same time; also that the inner part only of the rows is i 
progress of formation, while a great many rows act at the same 


oct this condition, the genus Cestracion has been ded 
and it is generally understood that what distinguishes it is the 


portunity to examine the younger ones, I found that there were 
none of those peculiar teeth in the back part of the jaw. Y€ 
that swim about in search of prey exhibit only the conical teet 
the anterior part of the jaw and have none of the teeth with 
surfaces at the hinder part of the jaw. What is still more § 
is that these front teeth, corresponding to the front teeth of 
adult, have not single points as in the adult but two lateral 
The teeth which are behind are gradually reduced to * 
prongs, and finally only one prong with a little hook on the 
and in very old specimens even these little prongs at the side 
wanting; so that you have a succession of different teeth 
_ sulting from the gradual change in the teeth of the same § 
The first teeth of the young have this complicated cha 
_ which is maintained through successive droppings before the 


until a third type of teeth is brought in. As these chan; 
in the front we find that row after row is added bebind, 
ee number of rows covering the surface-of the = 


i 


We see in 1 this ndiferent arrangement from the other 
in which the total number of teeth in the jaw is early 
_ and remains the same for life, while here the number 
incr ipoe il: the TOWS s behind have a ao 


i TEETHING AMONG BELACHIANS. .. 188 


, character from those in front. The front teeth in these rows con- 
stantly drop and give place to others. This implies a functional 
differentiation which is marvellous. Mark that every tooth that 
replaces another has a different character from the previous one. 
We have here opportunities for variation, for changes, for trans- 
mutation, to an extent which has. not been noticed in any other 
family of animals as far as I know. 

Let me here say that from single.specimens of Cestracions, ob- 
tained in different parts of the world, have been indicated three 
supposed genera based on the conditions of the teeth at different 
periods of age. 

To show that this should not be EP as an unquestion- 
able result, let me say that I have examined the young of the 
three supposed genefa. They are all provided with keeled molar 
teeth, while the adults have the flat grinders supposed to be 
characteristic of the Cestracion type alone. I am therefore satis- 
fied that it is worth while to collect largely and preserve a num- 
ber of specimens, even if they be sharks and skates and occupy a 
great deal of room, in order to learn their history, which has 
shown of just what importance has been the identification of teeth 
among fossils. Thus sharks drop their teeth and scatter them 

along. the bed of the ocean in great numbers, probably ten or 
twenty times as many as they have at one time while living, so 
‘that it is not to be wondered at that we so frequently find in col- 
lections of fossils loose teeth of sharks, and that we so rarely find 
_ the jaws of sharks with teeth i in their places. 

Of course in those species in which the teeth are isolated and 
do not support one another, we should hardly ever expect to 
find them fossil in positio; while those which are pressed upon 
one another may be found in the fossil state, and that occurs 
again and again, and among the fossil fishes there are a num- 
ber of sharks in which gil witir w arranged in rows are’ 

~ represented. ; 

There is a third mode of toting ša different from the other 
_ two as these two are different from one another. It occurs in the 
aes of Myliobatid among the skates. In Myliobatis, as gen- 
_ erally known in the mature-condition, we have.a middle row of 

_ broad and short teeth; along the margin are A-number of rows of 

smaller teeth, and it is known that in front thése teeth drop and - 

from behind. oo ea 


oe b 


Be TEETHING AMONG SELACHIANS. 


stand how teeth of a large size could follow the teeth of very 
small dimensions which exist in the young. In the teeth of the 
young taken from the mother, embryos therefore, and not young 

in the ordinary sense, the whole width of the dentary portion of © 
the jaw is not half the width of the central tooth of an adult, but 
on careful examination it will be seen that the hind part of these 
teeth is not as broad as the front part. They form in fact cones, 
and of course a cone long engugh will bring to the front part very 
small teeth. .Teéth as small as a pin’s head are actually found in 
the jaw. I have examined a number of jaws of Myliobatis, all of 


dropped as remain in the jaw. The teeth are not pushed sid 
wise : they are pushed forward. This occurs in Myliobatis, where 
` we have a number of teeth varying from a single one in the centr 
of the jaw, to four rows on each side and a middle row in addi- 
tion, all of which progress from behind forward. In the g 
ZEtobatis the teeth are conical, the front part being much nar- 
rower than the hind part. 
The introduction of the new kind of teeth is a a complicated thing, 

to explain, and to state the changes which they undergo by! 
would océupy too much time. Let me say only, that beside 
principal modes of teething we have some modifications of 
which are characteristic of particular families. In the 0 
skates (Raja) the rows of teeth are disconnected from one 4 
and run from the margin inward in unbroken continuity. 

| sting-taye (Trygon) and all the representatives of that 


. 


~ 


a that the whole surface of the jaw is covered with teeth. t 
poe r the teeth of the common skate had been brought together 
ri crowded, so that one row was pressed into the space of 
the teeth do not drop singly but are brougbt forward like 

ment, the margin of which is gradually dropping. 
There is another modification characteristic of the 
eanthias) in which the teeth of the successive rows Ov 
ey ated from the side; not uniformly from both sides but 
ai Ar ne overlaps the other tooth. and 
ad bee squeezed from the side and made t 


THE WILD CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 185 


If from the living sharks we pass to the fossils, we have still 
other modes of teething. We find in some of them instead of 
distinct teeth plates covering the jaw, only three plates on each 
half of each jaw. These plates are conical; that is, pointed 
along the margin and broader inward. The teeth increase by 
. curving the point over the jaw while the inner margin is gradually 
enlarging. The triangular pointing of the teeth accounts for the 
increased dimensions of the teeth from the young to the adult. 

_. We have one further step where the teeth, instead of being 

only laid down on the surface of. the jaw, are actually incorporated 
with it, so soldered with it that between the j ow and teeth there is 
hardly me difference recognizable. 


THE WILD CATTLE OF SCOTLAND, OR WHITE 
FOREST BREED. 


BY E. LEWIS STURTEVANT. 


Accorpine to our best authorities two forms of the ox tribe, — 
the genus Bos, existed in Scotland at an early period, Bos primi- 
genius and B. longifrons of Owen. The former was of large size, 
and according to all accounts the color was black; it had white 
: horns with long black points, the hide was covered with hair 

shorter and smoother than in the tame ox, but on the forehead 
long and curly. From the skeletons preserved in our museums | 

the length of this gigantic ox must have been from eleven and 
one-half to twelve feet, and the height at the shoulders about six 
or six and one-half feet.* Darwin remarks that the Pembroke. 
race in England closely resembles this ox in essential structure, 
and that the cattle at present existing in the Chillingham Park 
are degenerate descendants of this breed.t Bos longifrons, on 
the contrary, is described as a distinct species, of small size, short 
body and fine legs. It was eme ee in England during the 
Roman period.t Professor Owen thinks ‘it probable that the — 
Welsh and Highland cattle were descended from this species. § 


* Nilsson, Ann als and Mag. of Nat. oer ee 258. 
estication, i 


136 THE WILD CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 


A continuous range of enormous forests covered the whole exten. 
of the country in prehistoric times, while the gigantic and fierce — 
cattle roamed through the chase,* and fed on the tender branches | 
and buds, the catkins of birch, hazel, sallow, and other species of — 
willow,j resembling in this matter of feeding the moose of the 
Canadian forests. We have reason to suppose that the ancient 
islanders introduced the rudiments of a pastoral life, while yet A 
- - living in pits incovered with boughs and skins,{ yet no evi- — 
; dence leads to the conclusion that the native Britons had do- 
mesticated the great oxen of the country, although undoubtedly 
they formed ,a source of food. $ In Switzerland, on the contrary, 
the lake dwellers had succeeded in taming these formidit 
brutes. || 
~ We have it stated by Darwin, that Bos primigenius existed asà | 
wild animal in Cæsar’s time. There i is a record of white cattle in 
the tenth century, resembling those in the Scottish parks, “exist- 
ing in Wales, where they were more valued than black cattle.** 
Boethius, in 1526, mentions them as then existing near Stirling. 
“ At this toun began the grit wod of Calidon. This wod of C 
don ran fra Striveling throw Menteith and Stratherne to Atholl a 
| Lochquabir, as Ptolome writtis in his first table. In this wod 
: sum time quhit bullis, with crisp and curland mane, like feirs li 
nis, and thoucht thay semit meek and tame in the remanent 
_ of thair bodyis; thay wer mair wild than ony uthir peistis, and 
sic hatrent aganis the societe and cumpany of men that thay 
nevir in the wodis, nor lesuris quhair thay fand ony feit or h 
thairof, any mony dayis eftir, thay eit nocht of the herbis that ; 
twichit ọr handillit be men. Thir bullis wer sa wild, that th 
~ Wer nevir tane but slight and crafty lanbour; and sa ep 
S eftir thair taking they deit for importable doloure. Alse § ) 
~ Ony man invadit thir bullis, they ruschit with so terrible p 
ma that they ford him w the eird, takand 1 w feir of = 


-*Pehison Sota Wilsons Minheni dnc Mag. of Nat, Hist 1849, 
ies ! § Prehistoric Scotland, i, 31. à 


THE WILD CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 137 


Cumarnauld.”* Ina remarkable document, written about 1570, the 
writer complains of the aggressions of the King’s party in the de- 
‘struction of the deer’in the forest of Cumbernauld, ‘‘ and the quhit 
ky and bullis of the said forest, to the gryt destructione of policie 
and hinder of the commonweill. For that kynd of ky and bullis he 
bein kepit thir money zeiris in the said forest, and the like was 
not mantenit in ony vther partis of the Ile of Albion.” In 1598, 
John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, speaks of the wild ox occurring in 
the woods of Scotland, of a white color, with a thick mane, resem- 
bling a lion’s, and wild and savage. He says that it had formerly 
- abounded in the Sylva Caledonia, but was then only to be found at 
Stirling, Cumbernauld, and Kincardine.{ Sandford, in his man- 
uscript history of Cumberland, dated 1675, says around Naworth 
formerly were ‘ pleasant woods and gardens; ground full of fal- 
low dear, fieding on all somer-tyme; brawe venison pasties, and 
great store of reid dear on the mountains; and white wild cattle, 
with black ears, only on the moores.Ӥ We find them referred to 
by Bewick in 1770, and in 1781 Pennant speaks of them as retain- 
ing their white color, but as having lost their manes. || . Conrad 
Gesner describes them as “white oxen, maned about the neck 
like a lion: =.. +: This beast is so hateful and fearful of mankind, 
that it will not feed of that grasse or those hearbes whereof he 
sayoureth a man hath touched —no, not for many days together ; 
and if, by art or policy, they happen to be taken alive, they will 
die with very sudden grief. If they meet a man „presently they 
make force at him, fearing neither dogs, spears, nor other weap- 
ons.” (16th century ; quoted from Scherer’s Rural Life, p. 627.) 
“ Here (Cadzow Castle), so late as the year 1760, were a few 
-of those white cattle with black or brown earsand muzzles, once 
so common in Scotland. Their shyness and ferocity of temper 


z rendered them troublesome and of little use, they were therefore 


exterminated in the year above mentioned.” (The History of 
the City of Glasgow, eté., By: ees Denholm. er 1798, 
Pp. 252.) 
- #tector Bosce, born in 1470. Hist. Sehtoram, pub. at Par 1826, ed. of 157, Tol. 6, 
yr agp tg arse ited in An. & Mag. "o mn , 281, and Low’s 
; Animals, 234. 


Ie Sige E E E RGT a POR N 
Y “J 


npa De Origine Moribus et Rebus Gestis Scotorum. m. Rome, 1398, ea. of 1696, 18, 


Hone R. A. 1, — e 


‘ it ie 


138 , — THE WILD CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 


About 1800 they are spoken of as invariably white, with the ears — 
internally, and externally about one-third down, red ; horns white, 
tipped with black, and the muzzles black.* In 1836, we begin to 
get more particular descriptions. Color invariably white, muzzle 
black, the whole of the inside of the ear, and about one-third of the 
outside, from the tip downward, red. The horns are very fine, white 
with black tips; and the head and legs are slender and elegant. 
The Earl of Tankerville, the proprietor of Chillingham park, de- 
scribes them in 1839. In form they are beautifully shaped, with 
short legs, straight back, horns of a very fine texture, as also th 
skin so that some of the bulls appear of a cream color.{ In 1845, 
Low says that the eyelashes and tips of the horns are black, the 
muzzle brown, the inside and a portion of the external parts of the 
ears are reddish-brown, and all the rest of the animal white. 

_ bulls have merely the rudiments of manes, consisting of a ridge of 
coarse hair upon the neck.§ In 1852, William Dickinson sa 
that their bodies are pale cream. color,the ear tips red and the 
muzzle black.|| In 1868, Darwin describes them as white 
the inside of the ears reddish-brown, eyes rimmed with black, 
muzzle brown, hoofs black, and horns white tipped with blac 
Youatt mentions the existence of a mane on some of the bulls, y 
and one-half or two inches in length.** —_ 

As a wild race we hear of their occurrence at rare intervals. 
the time of Edward the Confessor (1042), we are told by on 
the abbots of St. Albans that wild bulls abounded near Londo 
and Fitz-Stephen writing about 1174, speaks likewise of | 
occurrence i in these woods.{{~- In 1760, wild white cattle were 


r 


K 


-ticular in tracing the accounts of this breed, as Wilson m 

= that 1 no sufficient evidence has ever been brought forward 

that these m are T to the character of an abori 
oe 


lete Grazier, p. i. bum ak. PERA iv, 202. 

Mag. of Nat, Hist., 1839, ii, 277. § Low’s Animals, 237. 

- A. S., 1852, xiii, ta f i 
on 


_ ** Earl of Tankervill 
itt Low'a Animals, p.387 


THE WILD CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 139 
\ 


descriptions of white with colored ears apply to all, yet each herd 
has had its distinctive features, and we find evidence of a constant 
tendency to variation, only repressed by a rigorous selection. 
-Chillingham castle, the seat of the Earl of Tankerville, is situ- 
ated in Northumberland County, England, and formerly occupied 
one end of the Caledénian forest, which in former times extended 
from sea to sea. The wild cattle have been preserved in this park 
with care, and kept free from intermixture with other breeds. They 
have been extensively inbred from necessity, ‘‘ and are accordingly 
much subject to rash, a complaint common to animals bred in and 


in.” We find it recorded that the stock at Chillingham was at one : 


time left without a bull, from accident and sterility. Fortunately ` 
one of the cows had a bull calf, and the stock was preserved.* 
In color, they are invariably white} or white,{ or pale cream color$ 
or creamy white,|| or white and cream color.{ Their horns are 
white tipped with black ; their muzzle black** or brown ;j7f. their 
eyelashes black ;{{ their eyes rimmed with black.g§ Their ears, 
inwardly and about one-third externally, red, reddish brown. ti 
or red or brown.*** Their necks have rudimentary manes,f{j or 
oftentimes a mane from one and a half to two inches long,{{{ or no 
manes but coarse hair.§§§ Their heads slender,|\|||| backs pe 
Legs short TTT and slender,**** and the hoofs black.tttt 

In 1675, as we have seen, they are described with black ears.{{ff 
In 1770 according to Bewick, some calves appeared with black 
ears, but these were. destroyed, and black ears had not since reap- 


-peared.g$$§ Since 1855 about a dozen calves have been born with 
‘brown or blue spots on their cheeks or necks, but these, with any — 


* Earl of iar Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 1839, ii, aia Nat. Lib., Jar- 
dine, iv, 207, n 

t Nat. Lib., Fact: iv, 202, note. f Darwin, An. & PL, 

-§ Hindmarsh, An. & Mag. Nat. Hist., 1839, ii, 979. Dic “dao ry of Eag- 


lt Sant. Davy, Milk Jo aenal, Oct. , 2, 1871, 225 
T Earl of Tankerville, Annals of Nat. Hist., 1839, i ii, 277. 
®t Die 


Earl of Tankerville, ‘An. of N at. Hist., 1839, ii, 277 
i Bat ot Tankerville, An . of Nat. Hist., 1839, ii, 284. 
whe of Tankervile An. of Nat. Hist., 1839, ii, 277. 
= Lib., Jardine, i iv, 202, note. — ttt? Darwin, An. & PI. under Dom. 530 107. j 
Hit Jour. R.A. ee — and Pl. under Dom., i, 107, 


140 THE WILD CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 


other defective animals, were immediately destroyed,* and Low , 
speaks of the tendency of the young to be altogether black or 
altogether white, or to have black ears.{ In Knox’s “Natural His- — 
tory,” published probably in the earlier part of the present century, 
these cattle are said to have lost their manes, but to have retained 
their color and fierceness ; to be of a middle size, long legged, with | 
black muzzles and ears, and their horns to be fine and to have a 
bold and elegant bend. The keeper of those at Chillingham said 
that the weight of the ox was thirty-eight stone, of the cow twenty- 
eight. It would thus seem as if Knox spoke from personal obser- 
vation (vol. i, p. 55). i: 
The Hamilton Park cattle are often referred to as the cattle of 
the Chase of Cadzow, after the castle of that name, the former 
seat of the dukes of Hamilton.’ Cadzow Castle occupies a site oD 
the banks of the Avon in Lanarkshire, at one extremity of the 
ancient Caledonian wood. Aiton, in 1814, describes these cattle £ 3 
uniformly of a creamy 'white color, their muzzles and the greater 
part of their ears black or brown, and some with a few black spots. 
on their sides. A few are without horns, but the greater num) 
have handsome white ones, with black tips bent like a new moo 
Some of the bulls have a sort of mane, four or five inches lo 
- The cattle at Hamilton and Ardrossan are not so fierce and sav. 
as their ancestors, but at Auchencruive they still retain muc 
their natural ferocity. Their backs are high and not so straight 
could be wished. Their chest is deep but narrow, and they h 
much the appearance of the ill-fed native breed of the ca le 
, about fifty years ago.{ In 18451 
he females generally polled,§ and in J 


` 


of 


r 


THE WILD CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 141 


mained alive, the survivors of the cattle plague of the few years 
previous. The. bulls looked as if they might fatten to eight hun- 
dred or eight hundred and fifty pounds. They had light hind 
quarters but were heavy and deep in front ; all had black muzzles, 
black ears, and the older beasts black tips to their horns.* We 
were told that some years ago the herd numbered eighty or ninety, 
but all fell victims to the cattle plague, except thirteen, of which 
eleven altogether escaped and two recovered. When the plague 
attacked them, they were driven individually between gradually 
approaching fences, leading to a large and strong wagon sunk tọ 
the ground level, and so captured, and taken to separate abodes, 
where they were confined until all risk was passed.. They have 
‘how (in 1870) increased to thirty-seven. t 

We have mention of some having been kept at Ardrossan and 
Auchencruive, but no further particulars, except that those at the 
latter place were very fierce.} They were also kept at Bishop- 
Auckland in 1635.§ eee 

The cattle preserved at Drumlanrig, the seat of the Duke of 
Queensberry, are said by Darwin to have become extinct in 1780, 
and are described as with their ears, muzzle and orbits of the eyes 
black.||/ Pennant writing in 1781 speaks of them as still existing, 
having lost their manes, but of a white color. Dickinson states 
that two cows and a bull were living in 1821, but the bull and one 
of the cows died that year. He describes them as dun or rather 
flea-bitten white, polled, with black muzzles and ear tips, with 
spotted legs.** Low says they were destroyed many years ago by 
order of the late Duke of Queensberry. 

The cattle at Gisburne Park, in Craven, Connty of Yorkshire, 
England, the seat of Lord Ribbesdale, are mentioned, as late as 


1852, as being pure white with brown or red ears and. noses.f{ 


Low speaks of their being polled,{{ and Bewick describes them 
as perfectly white except the inside of their ears which are brown. 
They are without horns, very strong boned but not high.§$ He 
also states, as Darwin ances 7 that me are sometimes without 


* Gard. Chron sah Gaz., Aug. 6, 1870.. Gard. Chro rg. Sa T 
tSinel Scotland, iii, 44. § An. Nat. Hist., vol. iii, ser. pie 
| Darwin, An. and Pl. under. Dom., i, 1 TQu \drupeds, 
** Dickinson, Jour. R. A. S. of Eng., 
tt Di — R A.S, i 
tt Low’s 


nee Si Bewicks Qundtupods, a edit, 9, note. -o 


Pe j 


142 THE WILD CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. ee 


dark muzzles.* They are said to have been originally brought — 
from Whalley Abbey, in Lancashire, upon its dissolution in ; 
The herd at Burton Constable, also in Yorkshire, situated in the- 
district of Holderness, all perished in the middle of the last cen- 

tury of an epidemic disorder. They were of large size, and had 

the ears, muzzle and tip of the tail, black.t 

At Chartley Park, in Staffordshire, P the property i of 

i Lord Ferrers, Low states that a herd exists, resembling those at 
o Chillingham, but of larger size, and having the muzzles and ears 
black. - He also adds that they frequently tend’to become entirel, 
black. This herd is very ancient, haying existed in this park io 

time immemorial.§ 

Wild cattle, says Low, have been or are yet preserved at Wok 

- laton in Nottinghamshire and at Limehall in Cheshire, Englan I 

and Bewick states that the ears and nose of all of them are black.4 
These cattle, i in the possession of ancestral families, and main- 

tained and protected i in parks, undoubtedly as a family pride, ha pi 

with difficulty been preserved throu 


weeding out of blemishes, we can see they were unable to retain 
their color or form much more than a resemblance. In the A 
lingham cattle the muzzle is described as black or brown, the 
inwardly, and in part externally, red, reddish-brown and rea 
brown. Their-manes either short, or rudimentary, or not exis 
We find black ears and blemishes occurring at different tim 
the Hamilton herd we find them generally with horns at an 
“date, but afterwards the- females: usually polled. Black s} 
te sides and legs are noticed. They are described as po 
_ mahes of from four to five inches long, especially some 
> e litubs have become stouter and their heads shorter than 
sham breed at the other end of the ancient wood. 
darcy ig have become polled, presumably in both sexes 
urne Park, they are not only hornless, but only the i 
their ears are colored, and occasionally they lose their dark 
‘At Burton Constable, among their fertile pastures, we vce 
s _ crease of ee ia the effect of the abundance of the feed, and 
peT : Me Sth edit., p-: 
Haws An ee nigh as ina ss 


. 


THE WILD CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 145 


of the tail have become black. In Staffordshire, we observe the 
tendency to become entirely black. 

When even selection finds it so difficult to preserve the unifor- 
mity of the same herd for successive years, and fails even more 
glaringly when applied to different herds under varied circum- 
stances, we can hardly be justified in rejecting these white cattle 
as the primitive or foundation stock of existing breeds of that 
county on account of their color alone. 

The wild state seems peculiarly favorable to uniformity of color- 
ing, as the causes which have operated to produce the result on a 
few act likewise upon. all, and are constant in their action. Any 
deviations from the markings appear to become absorbed in the mul- 
titude, so as to have little opportunity for preservation. In civili- 
zation, on the contrary, we have the element of human will, a 
highly complex and variable possession, which interrupts the appar- 
ent harmony of uncultured nature, by rendering new combinations 
possible and probable. That a slight interference with a natural 
state will produce variability of coloring is well shown in an 

‘account of the cattle-of Paraguay by Azara, wherein it is stated 
that the wild cattle are always areddish pard color, and thus differ 
in color from the domesticated breeds.* When it is considered 
how little tameness is, called domestication in these regions, it is 
realized upon what obscure causés the fact of color must depend. 
Even in our most ancient breeds we find variations of color, as in 
the Highland, Galloway and Devon.¢ The strongest single 
argument in favor of these white cattle being the forefathers 
of our present stock, is in the occasional cases of reversion, which 
occur in many of the breeds, and oftener in those whose connec- 
tion with the wild breed seems probable. In the West Highland 
breed, usually black, the white color and the ear markings in many 
cases return.{ In the Ayrshire cow I have record of two cases of 
~ reversion to white with red ears, and I can remark, after a most 
careful examination of Ayrshire cows, that I have never seen white 
ears, or ears the tips of which were other than red, brown or black. 

In shape we have the differences inherent to locality. Mountain 

: breeds are apt to be lighter in their hindquarters than breeds oc- 
~ cupying a plain, as we are told by Low,§ and it is obvious to any 
observer that semi-domesticated breeds are lighter in the flanks 
*Nat. Quadrupeds of P. , Edinb., 1838, 73. 

: erm Animals, 305. 


+ 


144 THE WILD CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. - 


and loins, than those breeds which have been subjected to syste- 
matic breeding. In the Ayrshire breed we find the medium horn, 

often the direction of the curve and the frequent black tip pointing 
to the wild breed, as also the white face, or starred forehead, and the 
“rigged” back occasionally or frequently recurring, to direct our 
attention to the transition cattle between the original stock, and 
the recorded results of breeding, coeval with the advanced interest 
in agricultural pursuits at or about 1800. 

- These eattle in their present state are easily and readily tamed 
and crosses with common stock are occasionally noted. Such with 
the forest bull are said by Bewick to invariably take the color 
of the father and to retain some of the fierceness.* The reco 
instance of the crossing of a cow of the white breed by a com 
bull gives the color of the progeny: as after the forest pattern, but 
with mottled legs.t 

When we consider the small number of these, cattle, and. 
length of time they have been preserved, and how narrowly ss 
have escaped utter extinction, it is difficult to suppose that th 
have been retained in their purity; still less when we consider 
the disturbances of the times, the number of cattle grazing 
tinually i in their vicinity, and the striking resemblance which 
often shown to them by cattle of other breeds. According to % 
individuals were to be met with in 1845, in the county of Pemb 


_ Thave myself seen in America, cattle which were pure 
z mh red ears, and even polled. 

_ The only explanation which I can see for the variations Í a 
: abe: herds of forest cattle and the tendency towards var 
ee which seems from our account to have been ever strong: 
= shen; as well as the domestic cattle of those regions, are 
_ from the same original stock, the wild ox of the past, 
“those races we call domesticated, as the Ayrshire, the Ang 
lloway, the Highland ‘and others, have been influenci 
greater extent by the arts of civilization, the conscio or 

scious breeding for certain uses, and the’ effects. of 4 
ese inhabitants of the parks. 
On this view the White Forest Breed is a wild kia i 


| 41, note. 
are “oe Sat, Hist, 189, ii, 26 tina 


EXPLORATION OF THE GULF OF MAINE. 145 


ant, with now and then a bar sinister, of the wild breed, and the 
domesticated races of the country are likewise their ' descendants, 
but with an ancestry hopelessly confused and intermixed by out- 
side crosses and influences. ` ; 


EXPLORATION OF THE GULF OF MAINE WITH 
THE. DREDGE 


BY A. S. PACKARD, JR.* 


Tuoven it was the original intention to devote the month to 
an exploration af George’s Bank, it was decided on account of 
the ‘“‘ Bache’s” defective boilers to work nearer shore and ex- 
tend farther from land the work of the U. S. Fish Commission, 
for the season located in Casco Bay ; the dredging operations being — 
conducted. under the charge of Professor Verrill. This involved an 
examination of certain unexplored portions of that great indenta- ` 
tion lying between Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, and Cape Cod, and 
which is laid down on the charts as the ‘*Gulf of Maine.” 

Through the researches of Messrs. Stimpson, Verrill, meg 

and others in the Bay of Fundy, and of Drs. Gould, Wheatland 
Stimpson and others in Massachusetts Bay, together with ey very 
thorough examination of Casco Bay and vicinity pursued during 
the past summer by Professors Baird and Verrill, we had attained a 
very complete knowledge of the coast fauna of New England 
‘north of Cape Cod. Moreover, the explorations of George’s 
Bank made. by Messrs. Smith, Harger and myself last year in the 
« Bache,” had given us some idea of the nature of the sea bottom 
there, dredging having been carried on at a depth of four hundred 
and thirty-two fathoms by Messrs. Smith and Harger, and in one 
hundred and fifty fathoms by myself. 

.  *Report of Explorations with the Dredge on the U. S. Toast Survey Steamer 
“Bache,” in the Gulf of Maine, during September, 1873, under the direction of Prof. 
Baird, U.S. Fish Commissioner, made to the Superintendent of the Coast Survey and 
to the U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries. In all the work I had the invaluable aid of 
owe C. Cooke, with his great experience iu dredging, a sige much to the ready 

. Office: H. Jaques, and Lieuts. — 


Hagerman, Jacob, Rush, Bradbury, and Dr. Dickson. rons of bottom water were 
token up’ at nearly every station n, the water bottle being used. For the identifi- 


oe AMER. NATURALIST, wor 0. 


s 


aire Si nod 


Commission during the summer. The disk of another spe 


_ of Monhegan Island (station 5 being fifteen miles peat of Monhegan Islan 
_ from fifty-eight to seventy-two fathoms soft mud, with a bottom tenpe i 


146 EXPLORATION OF THE GULF OF MAINE. 


. . . aye ae) ee 
It now remained to explore some interesting localities within 
George’s Bank, and at a distance from the coast. 


southwest of Jeffrey’s Bank ; of ee, “Ledge, a northeastern — 
submarine prolongation of Cape Ann; and Stellwagen’s Bank, a 
northerly exteision of Cape Cod. As intermediate points were 
investigated, the series of dredgings may be regarded as conducted — a 
along six main lines, running out rany from the shore between 
Portland and Cape Cod. 

On the 2d of September, the “Bache,” witii Lieut: Jaqi tem- 
porarily in corhmand, left Peak’s Island, Casco Bay, the head- 
quarters of Professor Baird and his associates, and made a harbor 
for the night at Boothbay. Early the next morning we ran out 
-and dredged about “ Monhegan Falls,” in sixty fathoms, searching 
with dredge, tangle and trawl for the arctic coral (Primnoa lepa- 
difera), a species of sea fan which grows about three feet in 
height. It is occasionally met with in the fiords of Norway ata 
depth of three hundred fathoms, while fishermen have been 
to find it on the ground known as ‘* Monhegan Falls,” and a speci- 
men two feet high, from George’s Bank, is now in the museum 
the Peabody Academy of Science. Our efforts to find it were, 
~ Rowevery, unavailing. wee 

e then ran out to Jeffrey’s Bank and trawled in oii 
fathoms, bringing up a fine Comatula (Antedon Sarsii), a near | 
of the crinoids; this was the first specimen taken by- thes 


E * In stations 1,2,3, 4 and d 5 of my notes thin ten to fifteen miles 


43° occurred either at one or another r station, though mostly in station 5, | 
- fathoms, the following —Nymphon giga rustacea, Hippolyte spina, 
pinguis, a ii, St pulla, Anthura brachiata. 


lus am An 
ta, Eunoa Œr stedii, ‘Wephebye ingens, N. ciliata, Ninoe mg 
concen, N- opalina Verr., Goniada aaral, Trophonia aspera, 
Gia | bricalis, 


æti Nicoma 
gracitie, Terebrellides Stroemi, Melinna cristata, , 
s Gunneri, Myxic trupi, Chætoderma nitidulum, Priapulus 


cæmentarium and Meckelia lurida Verr. ' Among the ie nn 
` ais 


N. pellucida, P. Periploma papyracea, Astarte lens, Yoldia 
and ind oie Among Tunicates, cna ge ; . Among Hobinoderny 
» Schi pag Gh seventy-two fathoms onl 

nida hispida, 


EXPLORATION OF THE GULF OF MAINE. ` 147 


was captured on Cashe’s Ledge near Jeffrey’s Bank. With this 
also occurred Nymphon giganteum, Calliostoma occidentale, and 
Ophiocnida hispida. We also dredged in deep brown mud, at. a 
depth of one hundred and seven fathoms, with a temperature of 


thirty-nine and one-half degrees, several Hyalonema longissimum 


of Sars, hitherto only found on the coast of Norway in from one 
hundred and twenty to three hundred fathoms. This had previ- 
ously been found off Casco Bay by Prof. Verrill. Other interest- 
ing sponges occurred, and a rare sand-star, Ophioscolex glacialis, 
new to America,* and which was dredged by Thompson at a 
depth of six hundred and forty fathoms near the Færöe Islands. 
Everywhere on Jeffrey’s Bank and Cashe’s Ledge the mud was 
reddish-brown. At noon of September 4th the sea became too 
rough to dredge, and we ran into a harbor at George’s Island, north 
of Monhegan, for shelter, and on the succeeding day returned to 
Portland for repairs. On September 12th the “ Bache” left Ports 
land for a farther exploration of Jeffrey’s Bank, Capt. Howell in 
command, and on the 13th a series of dredgings were made on 
each side of the southern extremity of it, at depths of sixty,; one 
hundred and five, amd one hundred fathoms (the last point being 
Station 17. Here the arctic sponge, Hyalonema longissimum, 
occurred), with excellent success. The weather appearing threat- 
ening we ran into Portsmouth. | 
On'the 16th we began to dredge on a line extending from Ports- 
mouth to Cashe’s Ledge. Stopping to dredge on either side of 


Jeffrey’s Ledge, we found in a mud hole ninety-five to ninety-eight 


fathoms deep, 14 miles S. E. } E. of Boone [sland Light, with a 
temperature of 374° and 41°t living Schizaster fragilis, a beautiful 
mea sea urchin ; Molpadia odlitica, a sea cucumber ; Macoma sabu- 


_ 


*Here also occurred among the wor . hthys i + N. cili- 
ata, Ninoé nigripes, —— specimens of cel OINTIA EA na, Goniada macul 
bregma inflate , Maldane Sarsii, Prazilta 


gracilis, Trebidijdss Str ee Melinna cristata, Amphicteis Gunneri and Sabella zo- 


nalis. Also the following shells: Siphonodentalium vitreum, Scaphander 
ear gr A fF obs ern 
rare Dacrydium vitreum; and among ter frag nd Ct 


crispatus. 
t Station 12, brown mud, ‘Ga a botaik iemparalané of 6° hace oconrred Dentalium 


, Siphonodentalium vitreum, Periploma papyracea, - 
l ‘eco enn in © Sr etn, iri at, aa 
! ge asemenea 


P se à eh. 


a 


te r thermometer from the Smithsonian Institution and 2 a oe : 


148 EXPLORATION OF THE GULF OF MAINE. 


losa and Aporrhais occidentalis (Fig. 46), two shells rivalling in 
size individuals dredged by me in shallow water in Labrador. 
With these also occurred the remarkable Cerianthus bo Yol- 

t Fig. 46. ‘ 


Yoldia thraciæformis. 


ok Aporrhais occidentalis. 
dia thracieeformis (Fig. 47; this and 46- 52, ‘ton Gould’s Shells 
of Mass.) and Hyalonema longissimum. This deep valley, so near 
the shore, afforded the lowest ts (363°) fou aoai 
the month’s work. 
The result of the exploration on Cashe’ s Ledge was oxi ' 
interesting ;.at depths varying from fifty to eighty fathoms over 

_ hard, gravelly bottom characterized by multitudes of Ascidi¢ 
losa, or sea potatoes, the richest assemblage of life was found 
_ We met within the gulf. It was a rare sight to see the tan 
come in over the ship’ s side hung with that gorgeous starfish, 
; Fig. 48. bright red Hippasteria sede a 
7 ing fully eight inches across, Wi 
forms of Pteraster militaris, species 
. chaster (A. arcticus and A. elii), “V 
| bella, Asterias, Antedon Sarsii, and 


aes 


Scalpellum (8S. Stroémi of. § 
EN to hydroids ; an enormous sea spider( 
t m); ~~ T an sretio "e oe a 


` 


EXPLORATION OF THE GULF OF MAINE. 149 


Thecophora ibla Thompson, dredged by him near the Shetland 

Islands in from three hundred and forty-four to five hundred and 

fifty fathoms, and remarkably beautiful spherical forms three or a 
four inches in diameter, these latter appearing in the trawl with 
Tealia and Cerianthus borealis of Verrill, a large sea anemone. 
The excitement was shared in by the crew, some of whom volun- 
tarily aidtd in thé tedious work of separating them from the 

Strands of the tangle.* 

- On our way back to Gisant we again dredged on each side 
of Jeffrey’s Ledge at depths of one hundred and twelve and 
one hundred and eighteen fathoms; at the former station east: 
of the bank dredging the rare hag fish, Myxine limosa of Girard 
(identified by Mr. F. W. Putnam), in soft mud with a bottom 
temperature in both stations of 39°. On the west side of the 
Ledge in one hundred and eighteen fathoms occurred Schizaster 
Sragilis. 

On the 23d dredgings were made in Salem Harbor and off Mar- 
blehead. Two days, the 25th and 26th, were devoted to investi- 
gating the summit of Jeffrey’s Ledge at a distance of nine to ten 
miles east of Cape Ann. 


* At station 21, beginning with a depth 2 EI shee fathoms rocky bot 
ing off into ninety fathoms gravelly bottom, with sand and some eS aor ee the pera 
f interest occurred :—. Pyonopinate pelagicum. Crustacea, H} raneus, H. 
coarctatus, Lithodes maia, sega oir annu Caridion ieg Hippolyte gi 
H. pusiola, Thysanopoda s Tritropii erari Ahere Sse ë cataphractu 


chella, derus lynceus, : t mons 
Hy Euph b li: Nereis pe agica, UCA 


Eun sect A +h py BS oe: igripes, 
Wilsa ke es aa Cistenides granulatus, Te rebrellides Stroemi ii, i, Tha cincin- 
-natus, Amphitri rrata, Myzicola Steenstrupi, Sabella zonalis, Potam aculifera, 
Protula media, o arbire Pec pa Vermilia serrula, Spirorbis lucidus, S. E aaae ngu- 
laris, Phascolo ma borea atis P. cementarium, Nemertes afinis, Admete viridula. — 
sks, Astyri: 


~ 


ostoma ‘occidentale, Diadora serene Polycera Sp., Scaphander punctostriata, Pntatis 
i Macoma sa (Fig. idia obesa, 

mmon shells. rd the Tunicates Ascidiopsis complanatus, 
hia carnea, Baa n. Sp- i i A. pallidum ar inum albi 
SPor era. i, ea pruinosa, Tubulipora crates, 
id. burnga, Flustra solida; Discopora Skenei, Cellepora ram- 

ulosa, C. scabra, Myriozoum subgracile and others. Among Echinoderms, Lophothuria 
Fabricii, Sci Schizaster fragilis, fragilis, Asterias vulgaris, Leptasterias tenera, L. compta, Stephan- 
guinolenta, Hippasteria erisa Archas- 


zs ta * POR Y 


ter arcticus, A.`Parelii, Pt ; 
and other common Ophiurans, Antedon Sarsii ; and among other sponges Thecophora. ao 

ibla, sp., Tet ethya hispida, Isodictya sp. and Hyalonema longissimum. — i ee 

tFrom stations 27, 28 and 29, from si: 

Thatcher’s Island light, í 


. 


loo EXPLORATION OF THE GULF OF MAINE. 


The temperature here was between 46° aha 49° in about twenty- 
five fathoms, a difference of about ten degrees from that of the 
bottom on each side of this ‘submarine elevation: Both here and 
afterward we used two dredges, one being, thrown over from the 
bows, the other cast from the stern of the’vessel, while the tangle 
was put over from her side. On. the 27th we began to run a line 
of dredgings and soundings from Cape Ann to Cape Cod, crossing 
the middle of Stellwagen’s Bank. Dredging in depths between 
fifty and sixty fathoms in soft blue mud northwest of Stellwagen’s 
Bank, in the deepest portions of Massachusetts Bay, the fauna 
was found to closely resemble similar -localities on each side of 
Jeffrey’s Ledge, the assemblage not more southern in character, 
while the temperature of the bottom water ranged between 413° 
and 45° (two thermometers ‘being used as before). In one haul 
of the tangle ninety-five Clenodiscus erispatus, the common pen- 
tagzonal starfish of muddy bottoms, were brought up, with sev- 
_ eral very large Asterias vulgaris, and several young Solaster endeca 


and papposa. Also a gigantic Corymorpha, a hydroid polype six — 


inches in height and fully half an inch in diameter near the base. 


It seemed to be-a large specimen of C. pendula, which we after- — 


wards dredged abundantly on the bank. We found on Stelwa- 


gen’s Bank, in twenty-two to thirty fathoms coarse sand (temper? 
atare 481° and Sat an- abundance of Mactra ovalis (Fig, 49) 


= 


EXPLORATION OF THE GULF OF MAINE. 151 
ig? { . ‘ 


abundant, though much smaller, and the tangle brought up at a 


Fig. 49. 


Mactra ovälis. P x 
~. Single haul from three hundred to four hundred starfish, mostly 
__ Asterias vulgaris. At night about ten miles Reeth OF Lape. Rach 


ae wf. =< Wig: 60% / gi 


é 


te 159 ; EXPLORATION OF THE GULF OF MAINE. 


when it came up loaded with Astrophyton Agassizii, or Medusa’s 
Head, and other kinds of starfish, the temperature being between 
48° and 50° at a depth of thirty-four fathoms.* 
But by far the most interesting results were obtained at a dis- : 
tance of about fifty-five miles due east of Boston in depths of one 


Fig. 51. 


_Glycimeris siliqua. 


hundred and seventeen and one hundred and forty-two fathoms, 
with a bottom temperature of 39° to 434°; the former oe °) prob- 


Fig. 52. ees 


Pinopea CERERA 


ably the most accurate determination. Here in a renik w 
pE 


>At Station 32, 33, 34 and A beak or near Stellwagen’s Bank, though te M that 
-very similar pashan Jeffrey’ et wi 
stations 


ova aps Ss bmi phe araneus, Cancer irroratus, peters s Be Dant, 
2.  Meppotyte borealis, H. pusiola, Paramphithoë cataphractus, P. pulchella, Moera tina, 
© ciola trrorata, Phoxts Kroyeri, Ptilocheirus pinguis. Worms, Nothria opal 
o om “us albus, Goniada maculata, Nichomache lumbricalis, Cistenides 
eee Reva eroan ta decemcostata, Aciasa borealis, Scalaria Groenlandica, Bulbus favas, g 
Ao oo TON Gost Lepeta cæca, Scaphander punctostriata, Glyeimeris siliqua, L sl 
os ~ diina, Pandora tritir Cy a borealis, Pecten tenuicostatus, The yaroid 

7 e Polymastia robusta? 


= 


he Seno o a oe nae e eet Stroemii, Thelepus 


EXPLORATION OF THE GULF OF MAINE. 153 


nacious soft blue mud, we found indications of an intermixture 
of the abyssal fauna characteristic of depths in the north Atlan- 
tic between one hundred and one thousand fathoms, with a tem- 
perature of about 39° Fahr. At the first station (36) examined, in 
one hundred and forty-two fathoms (temperature 39° to 42°) a 
large Geryon of a deep reddish flesh color occurred, having more 
spines on the carapace than in G. tridens, and with eggs. Associ- 
ated with this arctic crab occurred two fragments of a true cup- 
coral allied to Caryophyllia. On submitting the specimens to 
Count Pourtales, he at once pronounced it a species of De tocy- 
athus, and on comparison Fig. 53, 


Li, 
ey. 


Deltocyathus Agassizii. 


Poora from depths va- 
rying from sixty to -three 
hundred and twenty-seven 
fathoms þetween Cuba and 
Florida, our specimens did 
not differ specifically. Pourtales remarks (p. 15) that ‘this 


“coral has been pronounced by Dr. Duncan, identical with the 
fossil species D. Italicus, and though closely allied is yet 
ith 


readily distinguished by the costæ and other characters.” 
the crab and coral occurred Amphiura Otteri of Ljungmann, 


dredged by the Swedish Josephine expedition in five hundred and 


fifty fathoms off the coast of Portugal; it agrees perfectly, I am 
told by Prof. Verrill, with the description of that species. It also 
occurred in the one hundred and seventeen fathom station near by. 
Such facts as these, the occurrence of an abyssal form of sand- 


‘star on opposite sides of the Atlantic, and of the Deltocyathus, 


seem to favor Lovén's theory of a uniform fauna throughout the 
i 


bottom of the deeper parts of the Atlantic.* At the same station 


` occurred Schizaster fragilis and certain shells, among them Dacry- 


dium vitreum, and several worms. The olier station (37) was ten 


; i! aaa A ` ‘ ae i 
wee a 7 ies found at station 36. Those with * were found at 


87 also, Crestine *0e eryon sp., Hyas ara araneus, Scalpel orms, ` ingens, 
Lumbriconerers fragilis, Nothria opalina V, * Spiochetopterus? (tubes) * Sternaspis fossor, Am- 
cincinnatus. 


Bat 


154 “EXPLORATION OF THE GULF OF MAINE. 


miles northwest in one hundred and seventeen fathoms with the ' 
same soft tenacious mud; the temperature 361° to 434°. Here 
occurred a smaller Geryon, perhaps’ a male; and apparently, 

judging by Wyville Thompson’s figure in his work ‘The Depths 

of the Sea,” p. 881, very closely related to Kroyer’s Geryon tridens; — 
with this was Associated the western Pelican’s foot shell, Apor- o 
rhais occidentalis, and other shells and worms, and a variety of i. 
Ophioglypha afinis of Lütken, dredged the previous year by Messrs. ^, 
mith and Harger at St. George’s Bank. This day ended our , 

explorations, and at night the Bache arrived in Salem. 

The results of the month’s work besides adding quite a number 
of forms before unknown to exist on our coast, and a few new to 
science, show that the fauna of the deeper portions of the Gulf of 
Maine is almost purely arctic, the temperature at about one hun- 
dred fathoms being from 364° to 39°. The only apparent exception 
to this arctic fauna is the presence of a dead broken specimen of 
the coral Deltocyathus, which however is not improbably a mem- | 
ber of the deep sea Atlantic fauna, and may be found living nearer 
the edge of the Gulf stream in the neighborhood of the St. George’s 
Banks. The fauna of the sandy portions, such as around the — 
southern portion of Stellwagen’s Bank, is similar to sandy beaches 

: and adjacent bottoms on the coast of Labrador. As. the arctic 

fauna is best known in northern Norway, so our researches this 

year have brought to light several forms hitherto only known from — 
Norway, and show that the fauna of that country is identical with | 
that: of a region so far south as the area. between Cape Sa 

and Cape Cod, and bounded on the southeast by the Gulf stream. 
That the waters of the Gulf of Maine do not support a fauna 
purely arctic is shown in the absence of Rhynconella psittaced, 
while Ophioglypha nodosa so abundant in shallow bays in Labra- 
3 - dor- -is also wanting. Moreover Cardium islandicum, C. Haystis 
es and Serripes Grænlandica do not occur in anything like the abun- 
ee „dance and size in which they may be found insshallow water (five 
to ten T om the coast of Labrador. ; 


Eai 


de Punctostriata, Dovattumscietate, *Newra ardi, N. pellucida, Macoma 


+ on , Lucina filosa, Astarte lens, *Leda mvt oe 
Tearen T obesa, Mirgi um vi'reum. , Polyzoa, merate tucernaria, C 
ramu _Diseopora ra Skenii, Hornerea Pie sa bgraci 

2 re Otteri,” Ophiog hioglypha Sarsi, 0 E 


THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 155 


Finally, the liberality of Professor Pierce, the Superintendent 
of the Coast Survey, in placing at the service of the Fish Commis- 
sioner a fine steamer and every convenience for dredging during 
an entire month, leads us to indulge the hope that it may in the fu- 
ture seem necessary to the work of the Coast Survey, to make a 
map of the sea bottom within soundings. The soundings in such 
case would be better done by the dredge than the lead, as a far 
better idea of the sea bottom could thus be obtained, than by the 
slight amount of material usually brought up by the lead, and 
which is sometimes misleading. A naturalist aboard could sort 
out the animals and send them to experts for identification. Thus, 
with slight extra expense, the work already began by M. Pour- 
tales in mapping out the bottom of the Straits of Florida, could 
be extended, and our north Atlantic sea bottom would be studied 
and mapped out, and the results, while advancing sciénce, be of 

_ great practical value in navigation and the fisheries. 


‘THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 


- BY THEO. B. COMSTOCK, B.S. - 


~ 


——-+90———— 
$ II. ITS IMPROVEMENT. 


Hive shown, I trust conclusively, the value of the park from 

a scientific standpoint, we may now consider in a general manner 
the best and most advantageous methods of maintaining and util- 
izing its peculiarities. Before proceeding to the discussion of | 

_ this subject, it will: be well to state the provisions of the act 
` ot March, 1872, which relate specially to the control and improve- 
` Ment of the seas tract of land. I quote the following pas- 


sages : 

í “All persons was niant locate: or settle upon, or occupy the 
=> or any part thereof, except as hereinafter provided, shall be 
considered trespassers and removed therefrom.” 

“Said publie park shall be under the exclusive control of the 
` Secretary of the Interior, whose duty it shall be, as soon as prac- 
pable, to make and publish such rules and regulations as he may 
Ss oe far ee ee ros OF oe 


i , 
156 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 


same. Such regulations shall provide for the preservation from 
injury or spoliation, of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curi- 
osities, or wonders within said park, and their retention in their 
natural condition. The secretary may, in his discretion, grant ~ 
leases for building purposes for terms not exceeding ten years, of 
smail parcels of ground, at such places in said park as shall re- 
quire the erection of buildings for the accommodation of visitors; 
all of the proceeds of said leases, and all other revenues ....++ 
to be expended under his direction in the management of the same, 
and the construction of roads and bridle paths therein. He shall ' 
provide against the wanton destruction of the fish and game s. : 
and against their capture or destruction for the purposes of mer- 
chandise’or profit, ... ....... and generally shall be author- 
ized to take all sych measures as shall be necessary or proper to 
carry out fully the objects and purposes of this act.”* 
- It is impossible to find fault with this bill, so far as it goes, for ? 
it is a model of concise expression, while it is certainly explicit — 
enough to show clearly its objects and intentions; nevertheless it 
is marked by one of those strange inconsistencies which seem in- 
separable from our present system of wnadvised legislation upon 
ou matters connected with public improvements.t I refer to the au- 
` thority given to the Secretary of the Interior and the duties 
thereby imposed upon him, without the power of exercising the 
one or of fulfilling the other. Ample provision has been made for 
the protection and preservation of the park and its denizens, pro 
vided that no one ae to injure or destroy within its borders. 


~ 


= 


i ~~ 


of expressi 
Ta baat r be due to myself, in consideration of a certain air Sof novelty or incom 

a Bletcness w ich may attach to this. seine to ae more definitely m position p tion wit 

respect to the question of the relations 1 Government. 


nly that t I may be} 
in the plans here proposed, but also cai I believe that. the 
bined action t rt , then, 


of the > fi 
unprofitable an aiid tnia to the best interesi 
-aṣ it is upon a careful study of the facts in the case, natu 
_ whether any method possessi ssessing equal PA iii advantages conl 
e T ANa nea ese’ After 1 
; quite p Ie 


THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 157 


the law demands its execution.* Thus far I am not aware that 
much has been lost by delay in this respect, for the simple reason 
that the mere fact that a law exists is sufficient for a short time 
to deter many from transgressing it. It has now become apparent, 
however, that there is no “ power behind the throne,” and so long 
as this state of affairs continues the danger of spoliation is liable 
to increase. 

Again, the bill does not avide for the improvement of the res- 
ervation in any way except that ‘‘all of the proceeds of leases, 
and all other revenues which may be derived from any source con- 
nected with said park,” are to be expended in its management 
and the construction of roads. To say nothing of the fact that 
the first proceeds of such a fund, which is never likely to assume 
gigantic proportions, must be devoted to the payment of a super- 

| intendent’s salary, it is evident that “ the construction of roads and 

©- bridle paths therein” must precede ‘‘the erection of buildings for- 

the accommodation of visitors.” These roads must, therefore, be 
constructed in the early future, if the park is to become in any 
_ degree the place of resort for which it is intended. 

As I have remarked, the whole of this district is now in a state 
of nature, and while this is by no means unfayorable to investi- 
gation, but, in many respects, quite the reverse, it is not condu- 
cive to a high state of physical vigor upon the part of the inves- 
tigator. Until access to the Yellowstone Park from without and 
movement from place to place within its borders is rendered com- 
paratively easy by the opening of suitable roads, food and other 
supplies must be transported by pack-trains a distance of more 
_ than one hundred miles. This method is not only tedious and 
expensive, but it is also attended with considerable pe and the 
more delicate instruments which are indispensable or accurate 
work in some departments cannot be transported in pe manner 
at oes The first requirement for scientific work is, therefore, a 


[ete San ns tte mesg, recommends estan oti a e 
improbable that it will e attention of Congress during this . The 
] Jn iia aat, ‘by the appointment, in pegea 
has done far more than could be 
‘presented his reports, the fact 
ith h great sacrifice of comfort, and, so far as I 
ion. 


only be be carried w ith safety, by being packed 
mrs heck oa ir hl aw Mi 


or a radical change i in the manner of action of another. 


ERE 


o Psion undo very oa sounsance 


- these points in the order named, it ought to be understood that in - 


.dying out of the volcanic furnaces, proving that the. active von of 
in- 


ae Doane, who reports that the eruption continued during thr? 
- and A nair hours. At the time of Dr. T visit in the 


158 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 


system of roads which will afford communication between the 
principal points of interest. This accomplished, there can be no 
doubt of the speedy introduction of better methods of transport 
from without. The enterprising citizens of Montana and Wy- 
oming, encouraged by General Ord, have already agitated the sub- 
ject of an extended system of national highways through the 
Territories, and vigorous measures have been adopted to secure 
their object. This would add greatly to the facilities in this direc- : 
tion, for as I have shown, any direct route between ‘the Montana Ng 
settlements and the south or east must pass through this reser- 
vation or very near to it. But the project of a railroad through 
that section is not in its infancy, nor can it long be delayed. It 
is unnecessary to dwell upon these points, for it is obvi ious, from 
what has been said, that the attention of capitalists must soon be 
turned toward this field. I will therefore proceed to show in what 
ways I consider that the interests of science can be best furthered. | - 
Too much stress cannot be laid upon the great importance A 
prompt, constant, extended and connected observation of the rare 
and rapidly waning phenomena, which form the most striking and 
characteristic features of the district under consideration. Taking 


8 
y 


order to obtain thoroughly satisfactory results : 

Action must be prompt.— The evidence thus far obtained, thongh. ng 
meagre and fragmentary, points directly to the conclusion that 
constant changes are taking place in the movements of the geysers T 
and boiling springs, resulting occasionally in the apparent extine 
tion of an active crater, the sudden eruption of one long cone 


The whole region abounds with traces of geysers, solfat s 
and other minor evidences of the persistency of heat after the 
are representatives of the last stage of such action. Seve: 
teresting geysers, to which I shall presently refer, have changed 

racter more or less since first observed. 

The Giant Geyser was observed in action in 1870 by Lieut. 


THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 159 


as that mentioned by Doane, lasted only one hour and twenty 
minutes. This geyser was not observed in action by any of Dr. 
Hayden’s party of 1872, nor by the members of the northwestern 
Wyoming expedition in 1873.* 

If we are to reap the greatest benefit from the study of, these 
phenomena, it cannot be denied that “delay is dangerous.” 

Observation must be constant. —The closest attention to details 
will avail little, however early, unless ample provision be made for 
its continuance without interruption. Temporary exploring par- 
ties have done their work so far as these are concerned, in the dis- 
covery and mapping of their positions, and in gleaning sufficient 
evidence to show their importance. Every scrap of this evidence 
is valuable, to be sure, but the main questions at issue can be de- 
cided ‘only by the steady and laborious process of aceumulating 
rélated and’coincident facts. This necessity will be more appar- 
ent when we consider our ignorance of the phenomena. I can 
best illustrate this by a brief reference to the known history of 

- several of the most prominent of the craters of the Upper Geyser 
Basin of Fire Hole River. 

The eruption of the “ Giantess” so graphically described by Mr. 
Langford,+ who witnessed two violent eruptions within twenty-two 
hours in 1870, has since been observed only once, on the evening 
of August 18, 1872, by a portion of Dr. Hayden’s party.{ 

Another geyser a few rods distant from the “Giantess,” but 

across the river, on account of the approximate regularity of its 
action, has received the appropriate name of “Old Faithful.” I 
give on the following page a w of twenty-seven eruptions with 
particulars. § 


Ee f* Scribner's Monthly,” June, 1871. 


tMr. Langford reports the maximum height of the column of water projected from 
_ this geyser to have been 250 ft. Dr. Peale (loc. cit., p. 149) places the height, in 1872, 
oe 40 ft. 

-> §Th bs d in 1872 are taken from the Report. of Dr. Peale, 
PS pegabien The remainder ave rom my ovra notes. Lieut, S. E. Blunt rendered 
material assistance in instance. 


X 


Intervals of 
quiet. 


Peewee eee ee ee wee 


h. m ok 


eesssossreos 


160 THE YELLOWSTONE: NATIONAL PARK. 
: i 
TABLE. 
rap- Date Eruption began.,| Eruption ceased. | Duration. 
: 1872. h. m. 8 jf. m.'8 m. s, 
1. | Aug.17. | 3 22 00r 3 27 0PM 5 00 
E TAE Ta 80 a.m 7 32 30 A.M 5 00 
“8 | Aug.18. | 8 8. 30a.m. | 8 40 30am. | 5 00 | 
4. | Aug. 18, 9 40 30a.M 9 46 30 4.0 6 00 
5. |’ Aug.18. | 10 46 26 a.m. | 10 51 13 4.M 4 47 
6. | Aug. i Tl 54 31 4.M. 11 59 10 A.M. 4 39 
7. | Aug.i8 | 1005 orm | 1 09 46am. | 4 41 
8. | Aug.18. | 2 15 2 p.m 220 brm | 4 50 * 
9. | Aug.is.| 8 93 5LP-M. | 8 98 22 P.M 4 31 
10. | Aug.is. | 4 33 ren | 4°38 2P.u. | 5 00 
11. | Aang. 18, 5. 41 00 P.M 5 46 00 P.M. 5 00 
12. Aug. 18. 6 42 30 P.M 6 47 5 Pp. M.* 4 45 - 
B | Aug.18. |_ 7 44 Des | 7 49 20P.m.%| 4 50 
i it. | Aug.18. | 8 5 00ra | 8 55 209 P.m*| 4 20 
l 16 Aug-19. | 10 07 0Oa.M. | 10 11 45 4.M 4 45* 
| 16. | Ang.19. | 11 12 304.m. | 11 17 20a.m. | 4 50 
e = 47." | Aog. | 11 64 OOa.m. | 11 58 20 a. a 4 .20* 
#1873. E , ; 
* l | Aug.25. | 11 36 OOA.mM. | 11 41 30am. | 5 30 
7 2 Aug. 25. 12 39 00 P.M. 12 44 00 P.M. 5 00. 
: i | Aue) i wee, | Ew pra | 40 
-4 | Aug.25. | 2 45 20P.m. | 9 50 OPM. | 4 40 
. 5 Aug. 25. 3. 53 35 P. M. 3 58 00 PM. to 
- = Aug. 25. 5 1 pops 5 15 40P.M. | 4 30- 
7, | Aug.25. | 6 08 p.m. | 6 07 irm | 4 30. 
o8 fF Aug.35.) 7 2 ORM 4 oe... seen 


sssessssssssssss 
i ” 


s.s.. E PEREN 


.sssssses 


f aww wrens 


following tabular list gives the nnomiber of recordi 


Hons of ten o te best known geysers of the Upper Basin of 


THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 161 


Hole River. If there be any errors, it will be found that the total 
number is larger than the truth.* 


Maxin 
No. of | height of. “cok 
record- umn of water Character 
NAME OF GEYSER. ed |projected ac- o 
erup- | cording to dif- Geyser.t 
tions. | ferent observ- 
ers. i 
r Feet. Feet. 
Old Faithful : 30 100 to 150 gular. 
Giantess 3 39 to 250 Irregular? 
Beehive 7 100 to 219 Irregular? 
Castle 7 25 to 93 Fitfal. 
Grand : 8 173 to 225 Regular? 
Turban 3 25 to 30 Regular? 
i, | AOE A PAPOEA 3 140 to 200 Constant 
Grotto 4 4l to 45 Irregular? 
Saw-mill 15 to 25 Constant. 
Riverside 3 40 Regular? 
Total of rded ions of nine of i 

- swathes Sienan geyse = 68 be ge ap 


ud 


Ties facts not only tend to show plainly tiè pancity of our 
knowledge, but they furnish in themselves sufficient evidence of 
the amount which we may hope to gain by acloser study, based 
‘upon a wider knowledge resulting from constant observation. 

 Betended observation is required.— All of the expeditions which 
: have: heretofore visited this section have done so during the sum- 
: ‘her slate oe hence we have no records of any ——— within 


tourists, miners and sew 


+ z 


* This tabl n 3.3 n 
s id i i 


sidere - (2 roximately) in in its action. The terms employed here to denote 
thacacter of the “ Castle” “Giant” and apja geysers also express clearly 
their respective e conditions. at present. the others, 


a : 


# 


ae realize the vastness and extent of nature’s variety. iS 


162 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 


these limits for a greater period than three consecutive months. 
The most interesting localities, consequently, have been in all 
cases very hastily examined. Dr. Hayden has published topo- 
graphical maps showing the distribution of the principal geysers 
and hot springs of the upper and lower Fire Hole Basins, and of 
Shoshone Lake, to most of which he has given more or less ap- 
propriate names, but upon neither of his trips did he remain long 
enough in any one locality for extended observations. The expe 
dition of last summer* was able to devote but a portion of the 
time to the area included in the park, and the remaining parties 
have been not only quite small, but they have been much more re- 
stricted for want of time.t ‘All of the facts have been collected 
during the warmest and driest season of the year when the atmos- 
pheric precipitation is least abundant and permanent. We know 
absolutely nothing of the effects of climate upon the tempera 
periodicity, or degree of activity of the subterranean waters, d 
rectly or indirectly. - The relations, if any, existing between the- 
different craters are almost equally undetermined. Even the ; 
sources of the water supply and the nature of the heating and AS 
projecting agencies are but vaguely understood. In fact nothing 
connected with the whole subject is well ascertained and the P 4 
portunity for original investigation is almost unlimited. 
It is.also quite possible, not to say probable, that many craters 
- which have not yet been seen in action may hereafter prove to be 
among the most interesting and important geysers. Dr. Hayden 
describes, in his report for 1872, eruptions of geysers ‘which were 
not observed the previous year, while two or three which were seen 
in action in 1871 were not observed in 1872. At least two new 
ones, I have reason to-believe, were seen by myself during | oF 
summer of 1873, in the Upper Fire Hole Basin alone. Nor is h 
all, for there is little doubt that future exploration will be re 


thermal and spouting springs. Notwithstanding the extens = 
_ surveys in our Western wilds, there are many complirat p n 
- lems to solve and numerous discoveries to make ere we 


All observations should be conneeted.— Any system Ot 


Ska Wyoming expeditio ; a 
tI am aware of no case in which a any person capable of careful observation 
spent so much as nn facts from m one locality. 3 


THE: YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 163 


tion, however comprehensive, will be comparatively futile, unless 
the work of all engaged shall be so connected as to prevent confu- 
sion and secure the strength of united effort. This proposition is 
obvious enough to need no demonstration. I will, therefore, pass 
directly to the subject next at hand. 
It will be seen, by reference to the bill previously quoted, that 
it is made the duty of the Secretary of the Interior to *‘ provide 
against the wanton destruction of the fish and game, etc.,” within 
the reservation. I have already given a list of the principal mam- 
mals and birds of this region,* from which those properly in- 
cluded under this head of gamewill readily be selected. Accept- 
ing this term in its widest sense, we may, perhaps, infer that this 
provision, if rigidly executed, will insure the protection of the 
greater number of the animals mentioned in this list. This, in a 
measure, secures the fulfilment of the scheme which I haye pro- 
posed for.the preservation of these animals. A moment’s thought, 
however, will show the inadequacy of such means, for, in the first 
place not all of the forms included in my list are representatives 
of the park fauna, nor is it certain that mere protection would, in 
all cases, be equivalent to preservation.t Besides as I have stated, 
not. a few of the species alluded to are well on the way to extine- 
tion, and great care might at times be required to prevent exter- 
mination. I have not space to consider these points as I could 
wish, but a few of the facts will not be out of place. 
Among the foreign animals which I have suggested for introduc- 
tion into the National “Zoological Gardens” is the bison, which, 
being. erratic in its habits, would need some attention until egress 
from the park should become disadvantageous to it by the settle- 
ment of the surrounding country.{ 
_ The American moose (Alce Americanus Jardine), the mule deer 

(Cervus macrotis Say), the big horn mountain sheep (Ovis mon- 
tana Cuvier), and the «fountain antelope (Aplocerus montanus), 
wrongly named the Rocky Mountain goat, are undoubtedly among 


sigs First Part of this article. 


ihh trib $ thie roe. 


: gion, a few at least of those species of other faunas which are in tanger 0 + am ex- 
termin riments might 


1, 2, 3 CPOE U O R T S 
anima 


hat it ld thrive there: if perronnees is already proven 
no both within and adja 
these haunts. 


D ol 


164 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 


the most valuable and interesting of the denizens of the Rocky 
Mountains, and I cannot believe that we have yet reached the . 
limit of the adaptations of the order Ruminantia to the wants of 
' Tnan.* i 
The interesting case of the suckling of the young by the males 
of Lepus Bairdii, before mentioned, ought not to be overlooked, 
and there are doubtless many discoveries yet to be made of equal 
interest. The order Rodentia is well represented in this section. 
. There are many other points of greater or less importance which 
have occurred to me in connection with the plans of improvement 
which I have to suggest, but I must be content with a passing 
allusion to them. I cannot forbear, however, calling attention to 
one very prominent result to be attained by the setting aside of 
this tract, and the consequent preservation of the timber, as pro- 
_ vided by law. It needs no argument to show the value of the — 
Upper Yellowstone forests as a means of equalizing the distribu- 
tion of the precipitated moisture, which is collected by the various — 
streams radiating from this point. For many years to come, the 
timbered district within and around the park must be the main 
support of the settlements in that region, for without this influ- 
ence irrigation during a considerable portion of the year will be 
impossible. Until artificial forests, so to speak, have been proe 
duced along the lower valleys of the streams, upon the plains, a 
these timbered areas must constitute the very: backbone of Sue 
cessful agriculture. Such being the case, there are few who will 
not welcome the introduction of most stringent measures for the 
protection of the wooded districts. Nor is this all, for there a? 
doubtless, not a few questions of much importance upon We” 
new light will be thrown by the discoveries resulting from sass 
, preservation of new and rare forms of ast in ne Oa 


*In the Report of the Dept. of Agriculture, 1867, p. 218. anonymou «tbe 
a short meee _ a good plate te of Apl ocerus montanus, from which I extract 
lowing :— 


Paw rating“ 


eeek > Its coat is very thick, and is compos osed of two — of ee 
tremely long and somewhat coarse, beneath which is a short, dense ering, Very 
erare and texture as that of the famous goat of Cashmere. Bir A 
= coat of hair is very long, covering the body, tail, and legs. sine az fleece of wie yo 
being most abundant on the shoulder, neck, back, and thig i : 
h ile to i j ise apat and capabilities ‘ 
ts pecuniary wee — searching | g 

ee es yen RAFS e a 
camp, isa fat whieh I ‘atta 8 7 


THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 165 


The question now naturally arises, What can be done to carry 
out the several schemes proposed in this paper? This I shall en- 
deavor to answer as fully and briefly gs possible. There is one 
difficulty in dealing with all questions bearing upon the subject of 
government aid to science, which is that there exists no settled 
plan of action upon such matters: Those who are most deeply, 
interested have neither time nor inclination to * lobby” for the pas- 
sage of a bill, much less have they the means with which to pur-, 
chase its passage by bribery, or the effrontery to offer it. Science 
is thus left dependent, in too many instances, upon the purely acci- 
dental good results which may follow or not, as the case may be. 
If the idea of a free national park for the benefit of the people is 
at all consistent with our republican institutions, nothing can be 
more plain than the duty of government to provide for its main- 
tenance. But the Yellowstone Park, as we have seen, has man- 
ifestly a peculiar value aside from its utility as a mere “ pleasuring 


- ground,” and thus it offers, without material outlay, unusual re- 


turns upon the investment. 

For purposes of study, it would be best to divide the park into 
four nearly equal districts, with a small central district. The Iat- 
ter would comprise very few of the objects of great interest, but 
would contain the central station, which might best be located at 
the outlet of Yellowstone Lake. The four main districts would 
thus vary much in point of interest, but the work of research could 
readily be equalized by proper care and foresight. A chief com- 
missioner, a person of acknowledged ability, occupying the central 
Station, would then be placed in charge of the whole area, with 
competent officers under him and responsible to him for the per- 

` formance of their duties. Each of the large districts should con- 
_ tain a principal station centrally located, and as many local 
= Stations as might be required for observation and experiment.® In 
es — asa we should’ have what may be -m a LA ex- 
sev- 


competent scientific corps of investigators with their assistants. 
_ T have given here the mere outline of a scheme which appears 


a ei ead wee In the face of repeated warnings, tees are 
oe "T tas been recommended, and not unwisly, that such wa 
mates : criminal offence. 


- 


' 166 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 


to me the most practicable and advantageous, simply because I 
have not the opportunity in this article to enlarge upon its scope 
and its adaptability to the end in view, but I believe that sucha 
plan will be found adequate for the maintenance and utilization 
of the park in such a manner as to: produce the most satisfactory 
scientific results ; while, as I have shown, there is need of prompt 
action in some directions, it is not necessary, however desirable, 
that the whole of this plan should be inaugurated at once. On 
the contrary, time and money may be saved by beginning upon 4 
‘small scale, and gradually widening the scope of observation. 
Eventually, however, such a scheme must lead to the introduction 
_ Of observers in every important department of scientific research. 
The most unpleasant part of the whole subject is the pecuniary 
difficulty, but I would gladly repose sufficient confidence in the : 

culture of my countrymen, to believe that an enumeration of the 
immediate practical results to follow from this investment is un- — 
necessary to convince them of its desirability. For the present, 
„no method of accomplishing this plan seems available, except = 
grant from the General Government of an amount sufficient for- 
the labors of a single year, but we may be justified in hoping thee 
. the judicious application of the first grant would render future 
appropriations more apparently necessary. It would not be diff- 
cult to demonstrate the propriety of a large endowment for the 
improvement of the park, but it is foreign to the objects of thi 
paper, which have been to show the value of the tract, and, m & 
general manner, to show how it may be used to advantage, without 
discussing minutely the means to be employed for this purpose 
If the suggestions here made shall aid, in any degree 1 
advancing the cause of scientific research, more will have h 
accomplished than the writer has dared to hope. - 


pees 


eerie, Woh Pe 


\ 
$ 


* 


ay 


THE GIANT CUTTLE-FISHES OF NEWFOUNDLAND 
AND THE COMMON SQUIDS OF THE NEW 
ENGLAND COAST. 


BY PROFESSOR A. E. VERRILL. 
Oe 


Tue various accounts of the appearance and capture of several 
gigantic cuttle-fishes or “squids” on the coast of Newfoundland, 
that have recently been published in the newspapers, have exci- 
ted an unusual interest in animals of this kind. I have been so 
fortunate as to obtain for examination and description the jaw of 
the huge specimen found floating at the surface on the Grand Banks 
in 1871, and referred to by Dr. Packard in his interesting article 
in a former number of the NATURALIST (vol. vii, No. 2, p. 91), 
and also the jaws. and two of the large suckers of a gigantic spec- 
imen recently obtained in Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland,* and 
parts of another smaller, specimen, captured in .December near 
St. John. In a future article I propose to describe and figure 
these remarkable specimens, and will, therefore, at present, merely 


state that these remains show that two distinct kinds of gigantic 


squids exist on the coast of Newfoundland. One of these, rep- 
resented by the jaw obtained in 1871, is a comparatively elon- ` 
gated species, having, according to the measurements made, a 
body about fifteen feet long and nineteen inches in diameter 
with the ordinary arms about ten feet in length and seven inalies 
in diameter (the two long extensile arms of unknown length). 
This is probably the Architeuthis monachus of Steenstrup, as 
stated by Dr. Packard. The other is represented by the jaws and 
suckers in my. possession and by one of the long extensile arms 
preserved in the museum at St. John, Newfoundland, which was 


cut off from the individual that attacked the boat, as described 
in the February number of the Narturatist, p. 120. Of this, I 
a 
C 
fe 


lso have some of the suckers. Possibly a specimen, captured at ` 


‘Coombs Cove, was ‘the same indiyidual that attacked the boat, 


or, when so ap ‘it had lost one of its long arms, and the one 


e 
*For th i eci I indebted to Prof. Baird, of the Smithsonian In- 


(167) 


168 ; CUTTLE-FISHES. 


remaining agreed in dimensions with the one preserved. This is 
a comparatively stout species, having, according to ‘the measure- 
ments made, of the last named individual, a body about ten feet 
long and three or four feet in diameter; the two long, slender, — 
extensile arms were forty-two feet long; the shorter arms about _ 
six feet long and nine inches in diameter. One of the jaws of 
this species resembles the one figured by Dr. Packard (vol. vii, } 
p. 93, fig. 10) as probably Archi- 
teuthis dua Steenstrup, and ms 
be the same species. 

A smaller specimen was cap- 
tured in December, in Logic Bag 


Fig. 54. 


in herring ‘nets. Photographs 
were made of this: one showing — 
the entire body, somewhat muti- 
lated anteriorly ; the other show- 
ing the head with the ten arms 
attached. Tie body of ths | 
specimen was over seven feet 
long, and between five and six 
feet in circumference ; the ai 


Ø| but short, thick, and emargminn 
K. posteriorly on each side, the-€ r 
of the body being acute ; ie 


end; the tips slender and a¢ 
the largest suckers 1:25 inch 
| oligo pallida, one-half nat. size. dianieter, with serrated edges 
eight short arms were ea 
feet long ; the largest two were ten inches in cireumfert 
se; the others were nine, eight and seven inches. Theses 
o arms taper to slender acute tips, and each bears about ont be 
dred large, bell-shaped suckers, with serrated margins. ae 
"a s bears about one hundred and sixty suckers 
on, all of which are Gentioainiad i the 


f 


-“ bony-fish,” upon which it probably feeds. 


margin is concave in the middle, with a projecting 
angle on each side. Caudal fin large, about as broad 


CUTTLE-FISHES. 169 


ones, which form two regular alternating rows, of twelve each, 
are about an inch in diameter. 

The general form and structure of these giants may be best 
understood by comparison with the common small kinds found on 
our shores, to which, in fact, the large ones are closely allied ; 
moreover, their habits are in many respects quite similar. 

Of the smaller “squids,” at least six species occur on the coast 
of New England, but some of these are quite rare. 

Loligo pallida Verrill (figs. 54, 55). On the southern coast of 
New England, especially in Long Island Sound and near New 
York, the species represented by figs. 54 and 59 » ic is. 
often occurs in large numbers, and is frequently cap- 
tured in great quantities in seines, with menhaden or 


‘This species I have recently described under the 
name of Loligo pallida.* 
he body is stout, tapering rapidly backward. 
aa border of the mantle with a prominent, ob- 
tusely rounded, me lian doisal lobe, from which the 
margin recedes on each side; on the lower side the 


as long, more than half as long as the body. Siphon 
large and stout; upper pair of arms considerably. 
smaller and shorter than the others, slender at tips, 
margined along the inner dorsal ridge with a thin 
membrane. Second pair of arms stouter and longer, 
triquetral; “slightly margined on the outer angle. 
Third pair much stouter and considerably longer, 
with a membranous fold along the middle of the outer 
surface, which expands into a thin membrane toward gee of Loligo 
the end. Tentacular arms long and slender, in ex- 


_ tension longer than the body, the portion that bears suckers form- 


ing about one-third the whole length; in the female the larger 


= suckers on the middle of this portion are not so ‘large as the 


largest on the other arms, and are arranged in about four 
rows; those near the tips of the arms are very small and crowded. 


A * Report of the U. S. Comshistioner of Fish and Fisheries, for 1871 and 1872, p 
Osa 20, Pri 101, 101a. The description and figures are here reproduced with po 


eee especially on the back, and the red and brown shades predomi- 


170 CUTTLE-FISHES. 


In the male the principal suckers of the tentacular arms are very 
much larger than in the female, and considerably exceed those of 
the other arms ; they form two alternating rows along the middle 
of the arm, and external to them there is a row of smaller suck- 
ers on each side, alternating with them; the suckers toward the 
tips are very numerous, small and crowded; outside of the 
suckers, on each side, there is a marginal membrane with a scal- 
loped edge; another membranous fold runs along the outer sur- 
face and expands into a broad membrane near the end ; the arms 
of the ventrąl pair are intermediate in length between those of 
the second and third pairs. Ground-color of the body, head, 
arms and fins, pale, translucent, yellowish white ; entire ventral 
surface pale, with small, distant, broWnish circular spots, which 
Fig. 68. are nearly obsolete on the siphon and. arms; the 
upper surface is covered with pale brown, une- 
qual, circular spots, which are not crowded, hav- 
ing spaces of whitish between them; the spots — 
are more sparse on the head and arms, but some- 
what clustered above the eyes. The general ap- 
pearance of the animal when fresh is unusually 
< | pale and gelatinous. The ‘‘pen” is broad, quill- 
| shaped, translucent and amber-colored. A me- 
dium-sized male specimen, préserved in alcohol, | 
5) | measures 145™™ from the base of the dorsal arms 
| of the posterior end of the body ; length of body, 
120""; length of caudal fin, 70™™; breadth oo 4 
fin, 75™™; length of first pair of arms, 42™; of 
second pair, 50™; of third, 60"; of tentacular — : 
arms, 150™™"; of ventral pair, on. mre 
Loligo Pealii Lesueur * (figs. 56, 57). This — 
a similar to the preceding species in structure, 
= =~ . but is more elongated in form and much more 
Bes roneo ts highly colored. The color when living is Vey- 
— changeable, owing to the alternate contractions — 
= of the -spots or color-vesicles, but these spots are much crowded, 


s eo nate, So as to give a general reddish or purplish-brown color. 


This species owe represented by plate 25, fi dition of Goulds 
: g. 340, in the last editi 
’ Fibri) This Miwa y was — referred to Ommastrephes s Bartram is 


CUTTLE-FISHES. 171 


This species when full-grown is over a foot in length, though 
most of those taken are smailer. It is very abundant in Vine- 
yard Sound and Long Island Sound, and is taken in great quanti- 
ties in the seines and fish-pounds. 

The eggs of this and the allied species are contained in many 
elongated gelatinous capsulés (see fig. 56), which are attached by 
one end to some common support, from which they radiate in all 
directions. These clusters are 
often six or eight inches in di- 
,ameter, containing hundreds of 
the capsules each of which is 
from two to four inches long, and 


Fig. 57. 


these eggs contain embryos in 
different stages of development 
(see fig. 57). ' 
Even at this early period some 
of the pigment vesicles are al- 
ready developed in the mantle 


Embryo of L. Pealii.* 


to the greater transparency of the skin in the embryos. They are, 
therefore, beautiful objects to observe under the microscope. At 
_ this stage of development the eyes were brown. In these embryos 
the yolk is finally absorbed through the mouth, which corresponds, 
therefore, in this respect, to an “umbilicus.” The more advanced 
of these embryos were capable of swimming about, when removed 
from the eggs, by means of the jets of water from the siphon. 
During July and August the young, from a quarter of an inch to 
an inch in length, swim free at the surface, and may often be taken 
_ in immense quantities with towing nets. They were particularly 
_ abundant last:summer, in Vineyard Sound, where large numbers 


oa ta’, a"', a’, a’, the right “arms” belonging to four pairs; 6, the side of the head; 
the eye; f, the caudal fins; h, the heart; n, the mantle in which e Se 
oe heen ng colors; o, the internal cavity of the 
_ already developed and capable of changing ek Cort Ps = 


ag ai ~~ re oy eP $ 


~ would wait until the fishes came back, and when they were swim- 


172 CUTTLE-FISHES. 


were captured by Mr: Vinal N. Edwards, for the U. S. Fish Com- 
mission. These young squids are devoured in inconceivable num- 
bers by fishes of many kinds, and also by the larger jelly-fishes, and 
many other marine animals. 

The larger sizes, and even the adults, are also greedily devoured’ 
by blue-fish, black- bass, striped-bass, weak- fish, mackerel, cod, and 
many other kinds of fishes. Therefore these “squids” are really 
of great importance as food for our most valuable market fishes. 

Ommastrephes illecebrosa. This is the most common squid north 
of Cape Cod, and extends as far south as Long Island, and 
Newport, Mass. It is very abundant in Massachusetts Bay, a 
the Bay of Fundy, and northward. It differs from the spe- 
cies of Loligo in having distinct eyelids, and also in the 
more elongated form of its body and the shorter caudal fin. Its 
internal shell or “bone” is slender in the middle and expanded 
at each end, instead of being quill-shaped, as in the two pre- 
ceding species. Messrs. S. I. Smith and Oscar Harger ob- 
served it at TOTAS, Massachusetts, among the wharves, 
in large numbers, July 28, 1872, engazed in capturing anq de- 
vouring the young mackerel, which were swimming about in 
“schools” and at that time were about four or five inches long. Inv 
attacking the mackerel they would suddenly dart backward among 
the fish with the velocity of an arrow, and as suddenly turn ob- . 
liquely to the right or left and seize a fish, which was almost in- 
stantly killed by a bite in the back of the neck with their sharp 

ks. The bite was always made in the same place, cutting out 
a triangular piece of flesh, and was deep enough to penetrate to the 
spinal cord. The attacks were not always successful, and were 
sometimes repeated a dozen times before one of these active and 
_ wary fishes could be caught. Sometimes, after making several un 
_ successful attempts, one of the squids would suddenly drop to the 
bottom, and, resting upon the sand, would change its color to that — 
_ of the sand so perfectly as to be almost invisible. In this way it 


ea sek i Sacer e 4a et oe A EE 


HA 
ee 


~- ming close to or over the ambuscade, the squid, by a sudden dart, 
would be pretty sure to secure a fish. Ordinarily, when swimming, 
(3 aa 


o * This species is not well figured in the last spel of Gould’s wom ape 
ee 25, fig. 339, which Mr. Binney refers to-it, really represents a Loligo. 26, figs: : 
:  —3H (e r referred igopsis pavo), = a eens made foe a specimen 
: stip gr wen ere incorrectly drawn. 


CUTTLE-FISHES. 173 


they were thickly spotted with red and brown, but when darting 
among the mackerel they appeared translucent and pale. The 
mackerel, however, seemed to have learned that the shallow water 
was the safest for them, and would hug the shore as closely as pos- 
sible, so that in pursuing them many of the squids became stranded 
and perished by hundreds, for when they once touch the shore they 
egin to pump water from their siphons with great energy, and 
this usually forces them farther and farther up the beach. At such 
‘times they often discharge their ink in large quantities. The at- 
` tacks on the young mackerel were observed mostly at or near high 
water, for at other times the mackerel were seldom seen, though 
the squids were seen swimming about at all hours; and these at- 
tacks were observed both in the day and evening. But it is prob- 
able, from various observations, that this and the other species of 
squids are partially nocturnal in their habits, or at least are more 
active in the night than in the day. Those that are caught in the 
pounds and weirs mostly enter in the night, evidently while swim- 
ming along the shores in “schools.” They are often found in the 
morning stranded on the beaches in immense numbers, especially 
when there is a full moon, and it is thought by many of the fish- 
ermen that this is because, like many other nocturnal animals, 
they have the habit of turning toward and gazing at a bright light, 
and since they swim backwards they get ashore on the beaches op- 
posite the position of the moon. This habit is also sometimes 
taken advantage ‘of by the fishermen, who capture them for bait 
for cod-fish ; they go out in dark nights with torches in their boats 
and by advancing slowly toward a beach drive them ashore. They 
‘are also sometimes taken on lines, adhering to the bait used for 
fishes. Their habit of discharging an inky fluid throngh the siphon, 
when irritated or alarmed, is well known. This squid, like the 
_ preceding, is eagerly pursued by many voracious fishes, even when 
adult. Among its enemies are the full grown mackerel, who thus 
retaliate for the massacre of their own young by the squids. 
The specimens observed catching young mackerel were mostly 
-eight or ten inches long, and some of them were still larger. 
A fresh specimen, caught in Casco Bay, had the following pro- 
portions: Length of head and body, not including the arms, | 
221m; length of caudal fin, 86™; breadth of fin, 90™™; diam- . 
: eter of body, 35™™; length of upper arms, 80™" ; of second pair, 


: 


o 


: ‘taken at Newfoundland may also frequent the northern coas 
New England, or the deep water, off shore, for we really know 
_ Very little of the active free-swimming animals that inhabit the 

ae Pe — and cannot be taken with the dredge. 


_ smaller brown spots. The upper surface of the head is deeply col- 
ored by the brown spots, which are here larger, darker; and 


"seen on our shores, their proper homes being probably. farther 
` north, or in mid-ocean. 


coast ( (see AMER Narurauist, vol. vii, p. 394, July, 1873 


174 CUTTLE-FISHES. 


r 


100™"; of third pair, 100™"; of extensile arms, SE of the 
ventral pair, 90™™, 

The length of time required for these squids to become full zro 
is unknown, as well as the duration of their lives, but as several 
distinct sizes were taken in the pounds, and those of each school 
were of about the same size, it is probable that they are several 
years in attaining their full size. A specimen, recently caught, at 
Eastport, Maine, was pale bluish-white, with green, blue and yel- 
low iridescence on the sides and lower surface; the whole body 
was more or less thickly covered with small, unequal, circular, 
orange-brown and dark brown spots, having crenulate margins; 
these spots are continually changing in size, from mere points, 
when they are nearly black, to spots. 0:04 to 0°06 of an inch in 
diameter, when they are pale orange-brown, becoming lighter col- 
ored as they expand. On the lower sides the spots are more 
scattered, but the intervals are generally less than the diameter 
of the spots. On the upper side the spots are much crowded and 
lie in different planes, with the edges often overlapping, and thus 
increasing the variety of the tints. Along the middle of the back 
the ground-color is pale flesh-color, with a median dorsal band, _ x 
along which the spots are tinged with green, in fine specks. Above ss 
each eye there is a broad lunate spot of light purplish red, with’ = 


more crowded than elsewhere, and situated in several strata. The 
arms and fins are colored like the body, except that the spots spr 
pear to be smaller. ‘The suckers are pure white. The €y m are 
dark blue-black, surrounded by an iridescent border. 

The remaining species are comparatively rare, and are seldom — 


Of the eight-armed group of Cephalopods, only one species; the 


ctopus Bairdii V., has hitherto been found on the New Eng! It 
ae 


3 a 


BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 


BY DR. C. C, PARRY. 
No. 3. 

Tue very full botanical list contained in Hayden’s Reports for 
1871-72 includes most of the plants met with in the Upper Yel- 
lowstone basin, being comprised within the limits of the Yellow- 

stone National Park. But as no attempt is made in the above 
reports to present the subject in its physiographical aspects, and 
the list as a whole embraces plants derived from other distinct 
botanical districts, I propose to continue the itinerary sketch of 
the botanical features presented on our route, noting the charac- 
teristic, peculiar, or undescribed plants as they are cursorily 
‘brought to view. 

The elevated, irregular and bare mountain ridges that bound 
the Upper Yellowstone basin on the east command by far the 
finest prospect of this remarkable district. In approaching from 
any other direction, the distant view is mainly shut off by the 
dense pine forests that almost continuously cover the adjoining 
country ; but from the Stinking Water divide, reaching above the 
timber line, the unobstructed view takes in the whole scope of 
adjoining woodland, the broad expanse of the lake with its deeply 
indented shores and rocky islets, and on a clear morning wreaths 
of misty. fog, which, rising here and there out of the forest depths, 
reveal the locality of steam | jets or boiling springs. 

On leaving these attractive heights to plunge into the sombre 
forests, we soon lose the peculiar subalpine flora, which gives 
place to more common woodland forms. 

Aquilegia flavescens of Watson is especially abundant with its 
loose straggling habit and light yellow blossoms, less showy than 

most species of this attractive genus. 

Ledum glandulosum Nutt. is here noticed for the first time on 
our route, forming bushy clumps with laurel-shaped leaves, and 
_ Scant clustered heads of white flowers. 

~ Erythronium grandiflorum Pursh here presents in form and 
_ habit an exact western counterpart, on a larger scale, of our well 


gid eastern species. Mosses and wood Sora in greater "E 
on) 


176 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 


fusion and variety indicate a moister climate; and along the 
borders of innumerable springs and ice-cold brooks grow the 
ordinary forms before noticed, including species of Cardamine, — 
Saxifraga, Mitella, Mimulus, Mertensia, Habenaria, etc., ete. 

The absence of any well-marked trails, and the annoying ob- 
struction of fallen timber, obliging frequent détours, are apt to 
confuse the sense of direction even in those most experienced in 
wood-craft, and frequent reference to the compass is necessary to 
maintain a direct course. It is therefore a great relief, both to 
man and animals, to emerge occasionally into open grassy valleys, 
which offer something else to engage the eye and thought more 
pleasantly than dodging the scraggy branches of overhanging pine 
trees, or devising the best way of escape from a perfect maze of 
fallen trees. To the botanist especially these little open parks 
afford the most satisfactory field for observation and collection, 
however seriously interfered with’ by the persistent annoyances of 
insect pests. The Graminez here brought to view comprise the 
ordinary northern forms, including Phleum alpinum L., Vilfa as- 
perifolia Nees and Meyen, Agrostis scabsa Willd., Muhlenbergia 
Mexicana Trin., Calamagrostis Canadensis Beauv., Calamagrostis 
Iapponica Trin., Keleria cristata Pers., Melica bulbosa Geyels 
Poa Andina Nutt., Festuca ovina L., Bromus breviaristatus Thur- — 
ber, Triticum æœgiopoides Turez, etc., ‘etc. The Cyperaceæ are 
represented by Eriophorum polystachyon L., Carea rigida Good., 
C. Jamesii Torr., C. Douglasii Boott, C. aquatilis Wahl., C. Ray- 
noldsii Dewey, o. leporina L. and C. tenuirostris Olney, ined. pe 

On reaching the shore of Yellowstone Lake the great variety fi] 
exposure bordering this magnificent body of water, at an eleva 
tion of seven thousand four hundred feet above the sea level, 
added material attractions to the native flora. High bluff banks 

here alternate with stretches of sandy or gravelly beach, while 
numerous inland lagoons, frequently heated by boiling springs» 


Py ide ere, ex is induced a i oeaio hat pal grow 
But the specific forms are not materially different from those else- 

: where exhibited. Strikingly conspicuous among less showy plants 
-~ were the profuse blossoms of Gentiana detonsa Fries. presentil 
flowers of unusual size, and streaked with the most delicate shades 

| a — form of Pentstemon secundiflorus 


BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 177 


was equally distinguished by its brilliant colors and cultivated style 
. of growth. \ Of other plants affecting such locations we may men- 
tion Spraguea umbellata Torr., Chenactis Douglasii Hook., Euna- 
. nus Fremontii DC., and, more singular in its associations with 
neglected fields and gardens, Brunella vulgaris L. and Ser — 
nodosa L. 

Another peculiar plant of this district is that characterized by 
Dr. Torrey in Hayden’s Report as a new genus of Lobeliacex, 
viz: Porterella-carnulosa Torr. By some inadvertence the syno- 
nym of the original plant, described in Botany of Beechey’s Voyage, 
page 362, under the name Lobelia carnosula H. and A, was quoted . 
as Lobelia carnulosa `H. and A., and the changed name adopted 
for the typical species of this proposed genus. It is still doubtful 

whether the distinguishing characters are sufficient to entitle this 
plant to generic rank as distinct from Lobelia. The localities in 
which it was invariably found were recently exsiccated pond-holes 
in open grassy valleys, which it adorned profusely with its deli- 
cate blue flowers; it was here quite constantly ae with 
Nasturtium curvisiligua Nutt. 

While searching in similar localities near the falls of the Yel- 
_lowstone for fruiting specimens of the latter plant, my attention 
“was directed to a dense subaquatic growth, occupying the basin 

of a shallow muddy pond. This proved to be Isoetes, which Dr. 
Engelmann, who has assiduously studied this difficult genus, has 
characterized under the name of Isoetes Bolanderi var. Parryi. - 
(See Appendix, No. 307.) The numerous additions to this genus, 
lately made under the inspiring influence of Dr. Engelmann’s 
~ Fesearches, show how largely dependent is the introductory work 
of the botanical collector on the supplementary labors of the 
herbarium botanist. 
_ On the elevated grassy slopes, which at different points afford 
3 an agreeable relief to the uniform forest growth, wè invariably 
encounter a well marked subalpine flora in the prevalence of such 


iias eae At T elevations the same open. n character 
of nigel eel set _ with copses of “Ai y ate Lindl., 


~ Tn none of these promising localities was I able to 


178 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 


viscosissimum Pursh, Peucedanum leiocarpum Hook., Ligusticum 
scopulorum Gray, Lonicera cerulea L., Aster conspicuus Lindl., 
A. integrifolius Nutt., A. elegans Torr. Gray, A. Engelmanni ! 
Gray, Senecio triangularis Hook., S. Andinus Nutt., Hieracium : 
Scouleri Hook., Gaultheria myrsinites Hook., Orthocarpus Parryt 
n. sp. Gray (see Appendix, No, 218), Echinospermum deflecum 
Lehm., Spiranthes Romanzofiana Cham., Fritillaria pudica 
Spreng., Calochortus .eurycarpus S. Watson, Botrychium simplex 
Hitchcock, ~ 

At the head of Yellowstone Lake, fringing the muddy shores of 
one of its numerous inlets, was found in great abundance the 
well known European plant, Subularia aquatica L. This has been 
regarded as one of the rarities on the American continent, and : 
has been termed by Dr. Gray one of “the late lingerers” which = 
has just managed to maintain its foothold in a few isolated New. 4 
England lakes: but it seemed to be quite at home on the banks 1 
of the Yellowstone.. While it is by no means unlikely, as sug- 
gested by Dr. Gray, that from its diminutive size and mode 0 
growth, it may have been overlooked in intermediate localities, its 
_ occurrence here, in such profusion, so remote from any recognized 
connection with an ancestral source, is very suggestive in its bear. 
ing on the question of: geographical distribution, and derivative / 
origin of species. Certainly the localities on this continent where — 
it might have persisted, if originally spread round the northern» 
- hemisphere, are sufficiently numerous not to leave such wide gaps 
as that between Maine and Wyoming! Doubtless, as in other 
apparently unaccountable cases, future discovery either east OF 
west will help fo fill up this chasm. ee 

In the numberless ponds and lagoons which occur near the = 
head of Yellowstone Lake only the usual forms of northern aquat- 
ic plants were noticed, including Ranunculus aquatilis Ly Nuphar 
advena Ait., Utricularia vulgaris L., Lemna trisulca L., Typha (ar 
Jolia L., Sparganium simplex Huds., Zannichella palustris Lo 
- Potamogeton perfoliatus L. . 3 


A s e r Sgeeeeen! | channel ee ee rr ao 


detect the 
lated localities. : 
_ The various confervoid growths and obscure vegetable organ- 
ae _ isms in connection with the numberless hot springs of this reg? ie 
_ Will no doubt reward the special researches of the microscop! 


SSE 


- Nuphar polysepalum Engel., which seems singularly to affect 180- 


- 

~- 

g p 
l 

+ 


eN 


4 


BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 179 


botanist with new and peculiar forms. Before taking final leave 
of the Yellowstone Park district, it may be proper to allude briefly 
to the character of the forest grow jh, so obtrusively forced on the 
attention of the traveller. Not less than ninety-nine. per cent. 
of the pine growth of this district is made up of the single 
species, Pinus contorta Dougl. Mile after mile of continuous 
forest may be traversed without seeing any other arborescent 
` species, and their tall, straight, uniform trunks and scattering 
foliage will be always associated with the monotonous and dis- 
agreeable features of the park scenery. Only where the blazing 
camp-fire sends forth its grateful warmth to relieve the ordinary 
chill of a night temperature, where the thermometer in August 
ranges between 36°F. and 14°F., do we realize a manifest utility in 
this wide-spread forest production. Occasionally, in low moist 
* ground, the balsam (Abies grandis) comes in to vary the sombre 
scenery, and add a deeper gloom to these shaded recesses. On 
higher mountain ridges, Abies Engelmanni Parry makes its -ap- 
pearance, always indicating an elevation of between eight thou- 
Sand and nine thousand feet above the sea. With this latter is 
associated, as in the higher mountains farther south, Pinus flezilis 
- Torr., but at no point was seen in this district the more exclusively 
alpine form, Pinus Balfouriana Murray. 

Abies Menziesii Lindl., which is credited to the park district in 
Prof. Porter’s list, was ue seen by me, and as my attention was _ 
` particularly directed to this'subject of forest distribution, it could 
hardly have been overlooked. It is possible that some of the pe- 
culiar forms of Abies Engelmanii, in which the cones with their 
~ lengthened scales. approach Abies Menziesii (though still plainly 
; distinct), may have been mistaken in herbarium specimens for this 

tter species, which was not met with on our route after. leaving 
Wind River valley. 

Our route from the sonthern head of Yellowstone Lake ‘passed 
_ by an almost insensible grade to one of: the numerous eastern 
branches of Snake River; thence, skirting along the irregular 
mountain range to our left, we passed in full view of the Grand - 
-Tétons on our right, from which, making a sharp détour to the 
ast, we reached a low divide at the head of Wind River. On this 
Part of our route, being late in the season and on a hurried 
: march, but little opportunity was afforded for botanizing. The 
aspect e a 


_ tumn appear to be always in the bud, as they never open. 


180 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. — BOTANY. 


not materially different from other districts passed over in our 
previous route. Of plants not elsewhere noticed may be men-. 
tioned Sphæralcea acerifolia Nutt. and Rudbeckia occidentalis 
Nutt. Near the summit of the high rocky peak overlooking Snake — 
and Wind River valleys was found a new species of Draba char- 
acterized by Dr. Gray, under the name of Draba ventosa n. SP. 
(see Appendix, No. 15): also Aster montanus Rich, the latter only 
known from high northern collections in British America. 

From this accessible pass, by which the Yellowstone Park can 
be reached on a very direct route, we passed rapidly down the open 
valley of Wind River and reached our previous rendezvous at 
Camp Brown, on September 12th, after just two months’ absence. 


< 


N appendix, — characters of new species, etc., will follow and 
concinde this series of articles 


! 
1 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 

Tue ZoorocicaL Record ror 1871.*—To those who live away 
from libraries and would keep themselves informéd; as: to the an- 
nual progress in any department of descriptive zoology, this record / 
is invaluable. Working naturalists, also, more favorably situated, 
cannot do without it. We have found but few omissions in it, and, l 
American articles and memoirs are faithfully reported. The ae 
volume has been slow in making its appearance, and we hope e better 

fortune and better health will fall to the lot of the asi and his 
assistants in the preparation of the volume for 1872. 


IRE A r ELEA = 
Sy RICA Nae eee eel al gage ery | Sn ee ee 


BOTANY. x 
Tue ae Fanrittarion or Gentians By Humpre Bers.—The pa 
gentian (Gentiana’ Andrewsii) has flowers an inch,and à quar’ o: 
or more in length. These inflated, bright blue flowers of late at? 


flowers are all nearly erect with two stigmas considerabil 
the five anthers. I see but one way in which it can be fertilized, 
. that is by insects. Several „of my students, as well as seal os 
|" ¥ Being vol. viii, of the Record of Zaioiest Literature, edited by Alfred Newton 
Lor ee alee Sgr Voorst.’ 8yo 8yo. pp. 496. 


ZOOLOGY. 181 


more than two years ago, have often seen humble bees entering 
these flowers. They pry or untwist the opening with their mouth 
organs and legs, and then pop into the barrel-shaped cav iy , which 
they just fill. 


Tue Desmips.—O. Nordstedt has published in the part bearing 
date 11th Sept. of the ‘‘ Lunds Universitets Arsskrift ” an exten- 
sive memoir on the Desmidee of S. Norway; over 260 species are 
described, of which some 20 or more are new. ° In the same jour- 
nal Nordstedt describes and figures a new species of Spirogyra 
from Scania (S. velata).— Journal of Botany. 


ZOOLOGY. 


EntTomoLocy IN Missourr. — On pages 471-7, vol. vii, there is 
a flattering notice of the fifth Missouri Entomological Report, 
which notice, though lacking the familiar initials A. S. P., is, I inv 
: fer, from the pen of one of the editors and a co-worker in the 
cause of economic entomology, who frequently writes over those 
letters. The notice contains some strictures which call for a 
reply : : ) i ] 
_ (1) As morphology indicates by the presence of four pairs of jointed 
` appendages in the head, and embryology demonstrates, by their early 
presence, four rings in the head, our author’s definition of an insect as 13- 
jointed does not express the whole truth. (2), He should say 17-jointed. 
or 14-jointed, counting the head as one, in a popular report of this sort. 
(3) Four rings can -be demonstrated in the head of an insect as easily as 
that the petals of a flower are modified leaves. 
(1) It hardly becomes one who, if my esas i is correct, 
-~ has in his own writings put forth different opinions as to how 
‘Many “typical” joints the head of an insect is composed of, to say 
with such assurance, that embryology “demonstrates” that it is 
composed of four. The comparatively few species that have been 
studied embryologically will scarcely warrant our receiving such a 
_ Statement as an established fact, in face of the many objections 
that can be brought against it. Most morphologists, believing 
with Sir Jno. Lubbock that there exists’ between Crustacea and 
Insecta a physiological relation analogous to that existing be- 
tween water and land vertebrata, have been inclined, with 
| Straus-Durckheim, to consider the insect head as 7-jointed, and 
ore inmect body: as hes ointed. This is a very desirable number to 


=- 


182 ZOOLOGY. 


give force to the idea of community of descent between these two 

classes, and community of structure in their exo-skeletons. But 2 

neither those who advocate 7 joints to the head, nor those who 

advocate 4, or 3, or 2, can claim that their particular views are : 
demonstrated ; and until they are demonstrated the advocates of 
the 1-jointed nature of the head have the advantage and will natu- 
rally relegate the other propositions to the limbo of pure theory. 

It is, moreover, difficult to conceive how those who include Arach- 
nids, and Myriopods under the term Insect can believe in any 
present community of structure between them. Si 

My own view of this matter is not badly-set forth in am CX 
cellent memoir by Dr. H. Schaum “On the Composition of the : 

Head, and on the Number of Abdominal Segments in Insects,” * f 
and to defend it properly would require a whole number of the - 
NATURALIST, and involve a discussion of the value of the specula- 

_ tions so freely indulged in on this head. For this I have neither 
time nor inclination, and a few words must suffice. I can see no. 
good reason why: the jointed appendages of the head should be 
made to represent separate head segments, any more than the 
non-jointed appendages; and if any good reason coul 
given, it ought to apply to the jointed legs of the thorax as — | 
well. Yet the apodous insect larva peveLors jointed legs as well- ne 
as the legged larva. To me the idea that the head is composed of, 
four joints is not a whit more tenable than the opinion that the 
thorax is composed of six. AS Schaum has well said, it is a ge 

eral law that an insect leaves the egg with the full complement of ; 
joints and none are ever added during metamorphosis. Yet many : 
larvee have a head without the slightest trace of a division into 3 

- subjoints, and such are frequently blind or even destitute of aP- 

tenne, though their'imagines possess both eyes and antennis i 

Now, how can these organs be said to represent, or: be developed 

from, joints which never had an existence? a d 

(2) I have the satisfaction of beihg in most excellent company 
from the days of Lyonet to those of some of our best modern 


_ authors, in considering an insect 13-jointed ; 


Tr 


Bees Ns Brie See RAUS SS 
EEFE U y aa See, TER NE E ae 


a E E A E or C = 
eae pes ee eo oe 


tion which the authoritative tone might be supposed to possess: 
My own experience fully corroborates the views of those authors 
-who consider that in no instance doe’ the number of joints, 

~ *Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist; London, vol. xi, 3d ser., 1863, pp-173-19% 


Ee : 
os 


ZOOLOGY. ` 183 


true insects, ania thirteen, though it may fall short of this num- 
ber, as in the larve of Hydrophilide which have but twelve. 
; This fact is plainly seen in all insects undergoing complete meta- 
morphoses, where the head constitutes one, the thorax three and 
the abdomèn nine joints. In some insects ugdergoing incomplete 
metamorphoses, and notably in Libellulide, an apparent tenth ab- 
dominal joint is visible ; but’ Dr. Schaum, in the article alluded to, 
has very conclusively:shown that what is generally mistaken for 
the first abdominal joint is but a posterior portion of the meta- 
thorax, and I know from conversation with, and from notes and, 
correspondence of my late friend Walsh, who gave this question 
much study, that he was of the same opinion. + A more or less 
distinct terminal subjoint is also often noticeable at the extremity 
of the body in many larve, and I especially called attention to 
this fact, when making the statement criticised, and cited as a 
prominent example, the larva of Passalus cornutus.* 

In reality, as Erichson and Stein have proved, this is nothing 
but the externally protruded anus, analogous to the anal proleg of 
the laryee of many Coléoptera. The fact that dipterists have 
characterized the Cecidomyidous larva as differing from all other 

insect larvee in having fourteen joints shows how universally the 
insect body is considered 13-jointed; and I have already stated 
my belief, { after examination of many species, that these larvae 
form no exception to the rule of having thirteen joints and a sub- 
_ joint. Strictly speaking, therefore, the body of an insect is com- 
- posed of thirteen joints and a subjoint; and if we wish to em- 
ploy a more arbitrary definition, the number 13 will more truly 
and generally apply than either 12 or 14. 
(3) I have shown above that I do not believe this tò be a 
_ truth; and even if it were irrefutably demonstrated that the head 
-of an insect is composed of four elementary or embryonic joints, 
TI should still speak of it as a single joint in referring te an insect 
out of the egg; for nothing would be gained, éspecially in a pop- 
ular work, in which the abstruse in thought or expression: should 
always be avoided, by substituting the ideal for the real. Though 
the petals of a flower be modified leaves, we still distinguish them 
as petals; and he who would — to do away with all the dis- 
c 


~ 


= 35th Bo. ep p. 114, ote : 


ve ee 


` 


~ more typical Homoptera from which no one thinks of separating 


„and composition (as no one better knows than my reviewer) of 


| 
to the past — do not always subserve the best interests of classification.” 


_ Sanoptera I distinctly state that they “may be placed with the 
these osculant groups with the following sentence: Ae : 
_ Teady stated, if separated from the other orders, these abnormal ; 


reality they differ no more from the orders to which they are ees 


a : tation from that part of my Report which refers to the diffe . 
_ Systems of classification, and which I quote because it helps We 
_ Answer both the beri 


Isi ZOOLOGY. 


tinctive terms, as wing, fin, arm, etc., used to designate the known — - 
modifications of the sarne embryonic organ, would not, to my 
mind, cause more confusion, or be less justified, than is he who 
calls an insect’s body 17-jointed simply because what is so palpa- 
bly a single joint, was originally formed out of four embryonic 
joints. There is a fundamental unity of elementary structure 


all living beings; and animal and plant may alike be traced to, 3 
and have their origin in, the simple cell. Embryologically, there- 
fore, all animals may be said to be alike, and in making our clas- 
sificatory distinctions we necessarily refer to the perfected or 
ultimate structures. i 


\ 


- 


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ag 
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= 
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= 
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as pointing to the derivation of insects — their homologies and relations 


We would inquire what is classification but an attempt at tracing the gen- 
ealogy of animals or plants? 


the Coleoptera ;” speaking of the Aphaniptera I say ‘‘ now = 
placed with the Diptera (5th Rep., p. 15); speaking of the Thy- 


Pseudo-newroptera, though bearing strong relations to the Hemip- ig 
tera (ibid., p. 16); and I finally conclude my consideration ob 
groups should, at the most, be considered as Suborders; and in- 
referred than, for instance, the bark lice (Coccidw) do from the 


them” (ibid., p. 16). 7 i 
(5) This stricture was doubtless inspired by the following q 


fifth and sixth strictures. ‘+ Remember! 
s are but means to an end — appliances to ™ 


Și; 


ZOOLOGY. 185 


itate our thought and study ; and that, to use Spencer’s words, 
“we cannot, by any logical dichotomies, accurately express rela- 
tions which, in nature, graduate into each other insensibly,’ the 
difference of opinion becomes intelligible; and for my part I adopt 
that system which appears most natural, and which best promotes 
the object in view. It is essentially that of Westwood, given in 
his ‘Introduction,’ which has justly been called the entomologist’s 
bible.” Perhaps this language conveys the idea that I believe we 
have made no advance beyond Westwood’s classification; but if 
so, it belies my meaning, and I have simply been unfortunate in 
expression! And as facts never become obsolete, and the *‘ In- 
troduction” referred to contains more facts, and fewer theories 
and speculations than many later published entomological works, 
I do not think it undeserving the homage paid to it, though it be 
‘in many respects obsolete in 1873.” 

:` (6) Ihave already answered the inquiry, in my feeble way, in 
the above extract: and as to my opinion of the value of embryo- 
logical data in classification, I shall content myself, at present, 
with adducing in its support the opinion of one who is infinitely 
better qualified to form an opinion which has weight. After re- 
ferring in his last annual address, before the London Entomo- 
logical Society, to Packard’s ‘‘Memoir on the Embryology of 
Chrysopa, and its Bearings on the Classification of the Neurop- 
tera,” and to the opinions arrived at by the author, Westwood 
concludes as follows: —‘‘And thus the position of the animal in 
the ovum is allowed to unite into one group Libellula with its 
active, and Hemerobius with its necromorphous pupa; and to 
separate widely Hemerobius and Phryganea, hoth with inactive 
pupa, which are, however, furnished with jaws of a structure, per 

se, for biting a hole in the cocoon before arriving at) the fully- 
developed imago state. I confess that this specimen of classifica- 
tion founded upon embryological data does not carry to my mind 
conviction of its superior worth.” 

~ _The accompanying figure (117) represents the male of the apple bark 
louse, which Riley calls Mytilaspis pomicorticis, regarding it as distinct 
_ from the A. pomorum Bouché of Europe, from the fact that the eggs of the 

. European species are reddish-brown, while those of our species are white. 
-Care should here be taken in ascertaining how soon after being laid the 

eggs are observed, as they may vary in color with the age of the embryo 
within. Certainly we have been unable to detect any difference between 

the bark 1 u of the apple aswe | e obse d it in Jena, Germany, and 


WO uar 


` 


186 ZOOLOGY. 


our species, having compared numerous specimens of both. Undoubtedly 
our species has been imported from Europe, and it would have been the 
better way, we think, to regard our. species as identical with the M. po- 
morum (Bouché) than to give it a new name 


Now this is not very consoling after having devoted nearly’ 
three pages to the reasons for the course pursued, in which pages 
every point made in the above extract is carefully met and effect- 
ually broken. It is all the less so that my reviewer has himself 
named species on very unsatisfactory grounds.* I have studied 
Mytilaspis pomicorticis for many years, and emphasized the fact 
that its eggs are never, at any stage of development, reddish-. 
brown, and that the color of the egg is a most important character 
in distinguishing the closely allied Coccide. I expressly stated - 
my belief that the European insect mentioned by Curtis, Bois- 
duval, Taschenberg and others is identical with our’ s, and showed 
that in Europe as well as in this country it had generally been 
considered as Gmelin’s conchiformis which, however, applies to 4 
similar species found on the elm in Europe, and not to the apple 
tree species under consideration. No one, until last year, even $0 
much as thought of referring our insect to Bouché’s pomorum to 
which, indeed, it cannot be referred ; and I regret that my views 
and the reasons for them are not better represented i in the above- 
quoted stricture. 

“he truth is, that if, following the highest ori we con- 
sider several very closely allied forms of Metilaspes as specifically 
distinct, the European apple tree species with white eggs, which 
is the one imported into this country, was, up to the appearance 
of my last Report, erroneously referred to conchiformis Gmélin; 
and they either have a closely allied species in Europe, with 
Sains si eggs, o or = Bouche: s iid deca is so false in one 
a species of yi so cous allied to M ee icor that no grime i 
-` features hate yet been pointed ont. The fruit omy comes a o the St. Louis market is 

o phe Sno dala the scales, and Capt. E. H. Beebe, of Geneva, Ill., last spring sent ip 
rae ested that the scales were two and three deep; some bein, 
_ nti more meae a B the case with all the allied species. As far back as i n 

_ M. Ch. Delacour, in an wey on ‘insects which attack fruit trees, considered it aE 

; with theappletre species 


` 


" 


= pomi- p. 
în the dead insects. The o nly way a which it can be properly nE diag 0 s £ 
ae is by PORTES t bo in- i 

ra so oes erage f this orange species and s rch a 


troduction into lord, but without naming From his — figures and ale a 
giving any characters 527) makes two new e 
~ Species, viz, Aspi ii and A. citricola, “ 


ZOOLOGY. 187 


of the most important characters. that it is valueless, and should 
be ignored as, indeed, it always has been. In either case, the 
American pomologist will appreciate more kindly than my- 
reviewer the efforts to “‘ brush away the cobwebs of uncertainty 
' which have gathered around the nomenclature of the insect,” and 
.to couple an appropriate name with a description and history 
which cannot iń future be misunderstood. 

Praying your indulgence for the length of this defence, I thank 
you, Messrs. editors, for the appreciation otherwise manifest in 

the review in question.—C. V. RıLeY, Dec. 3, 1873. 


-[I should not feel called upon to notice Mr. Riley’s reply to my 

. criticism, were not the views on morphology he here reiterates in 

my opinion so erroneous. In reply to his section 1, I may say 

that the reader is referred to p. 19 of the third edition of the 

**Guide to the Study of Insects” for my reasons for changing my 

Opinions as to the number of segments in the head of six-footed 

insects, and on p. 18, will be found an account of the opinions 

of the best authors as to the composition of the head of insects. 

The whole matter was settled by Savigny in 1816, and confirmed 

by Audouin, MacLeay, Kirby, Carus, Straus-Durckheim, New- 

man, Newport, Huxley and others, and by every writer on the 

embryology of insects. If Mr. Riley, after reading the views of 

these authors, and studying for himself the embryology of some: 

-insect, is content to reiterate his own and Dr. Schaum’s views so 
confidently, I shall admire his hardihood. 

2. The article of Dr. Schaum is really based on such ignorance 
of morphology and embryology, and is so unphilosophical in its 
spirit, that I wonder any one can be found to endorse it. That 
“ what is generally mistaken for the first abdominal joint” is that 
joint was shown’ to be so by Latreille, Newman and others, and J 

_ May be pardoned for saying that I believe I have proved it by an 
examination of the segment in question in the larval and pupal 
_ Stages of the humble bee.* } 
8. That the head of an insect is dii of more than one 
-Segment is simply a matter of fact ; there is nothing “ ideal” about 
it. The simple-fact that the head of an insect bears four pairs of — 
jointed adana Soe e. the antennæ, mandibles, and two pairs of 
= weeds Devel t d position of the Hymenoptera, ete 


Y 


oe Pky ou Fae 866, yol x, p.279, and “Guide to din Study 
ee penbe 


X 


ce familiar ne European forms, at once recognized it as the Hy 


1 88 ; ZOOLOGY. 


maxille) indicates that it must be composed of four segments, 
while an examination of the head of an adult insect indicates 

that all the different pieces composing it cannot be referred to a 
single segment. Would it not be better in a “popular work” to 

tell the truth of the matter, and thus lead the reader to take an 
interest in the study of the morphology of insects, that highest 

` department of biology, than to lead him blind-fold past some of 

the grandest trutlis in science? 

4. My good friend is, quite wrong in intimating that those 
larvee which have heads “ without the slightest trace of a division. 
into ‘subjoints,” and are “blind or even destitute of antenne,” 
never had cephalic segments.. If he will study Weismann’s 
famous work on the embryology of insects, he will see that in the 
embryo of the flesh fly, the four segments and appendages are 
as distinct as in the embryo of the bee, Hydrophilus, or other 
beetles. The appendages become obsolete, though not wholly so, 
just before hatching, and Mr. Riley will probably agree with me 
that the differences between a “headless” maggot and a caterpillar 
or bee larva are probably due to differences in their mode of life. 

The organs are all there at tlie outset, in the embryo. I think Mr. : 
Riley will set a higher value on ‘‘embryological data,” after pe- 
rusing the works of Rathke, Herold, Kölliker, Zaddach, Leuckart, 

: Huxley, Claparéde, and especially Weismann and Kowalevsky- 
Whether my criticism on the matter of the apple bark louse 
` was hasty and oorte I leave to others to ‘decide, —A- S. a 
PacKarD, Jr.] oe 2 


À NEW NORTH ÅMERICAN Bn —On the 5th of July last 

Ludovic Kumlien, a son.of Thure Kumlien, the well known ornithol- 
: ogist of Wisconsin, shot on Lake Koshkonong, imthe central part 
of southern Wisconsin among a flock of the Hydrochelidon fissipes, 
a bird which he at once recognized as something entirely new pa i 
our fauna. It was a mature female and was found to contain well : 
developed ova, though not fally grown. Mr. Kumlien, Sr-, wh? is 


a eucoptera and this determination has since bea con- 
firmed | ay Baird. o 

The H. leucoptera is a well known European form more COM- — 
mon = southern Pao eee farther north and has never before 


hat one should be ound 


ZOOLOGY. 189 


so far in the interior of Wisconsin, a thousand miles from the 
coast, is somewhat remarkable, and naturally suggests the idea that 
this species may be found not so very rare, but that it may occur 
elsewhere and have been mistaken for jissipes, which.is a cosmo- 
politan bird, and is found both in America and Europe. Its prin- 
cipal difference from the fissipes, consists in its white tail, and it 
wil] be well for naturalists in various parts of the country to be on 
the lookout for a white-tailed tern.—'T..M. Brewer. 

P. S. Mr. Robert Ridgway has kindly made the accompanying 
description of this new acquisition to our fauna: — 


ł 


Wing, 7°50; tail, 2°90; culmen, -90; tars sel Se middle toe, *65. Head, neck and lower 
parts to the anus, including the lining of the wings, uniform plumbeous-black; anal re- 
gion, crissum, and upper tail ER imma Ark te snowy white; tail white, neers with 
ashy. Mantle dark plumbeous, shading insensiy into the black of the nape 
lighter, more hoary, aan aso becoming gradually kps at the anterior border of 

. the lesser covert region; primaries like the mantle, but more hoary, their shafts pure 
white. Bill, purplish black, ee lower mandible more reddish; legs and feet deep 
orange-red. f 

This specimen is very similar to a European one in the Smithsonian Collection, but 

differs in | ing tl pper tail t d tail ch p r ite. 


Economic Enromotogy.—Dr. LeConte’s excellent paper, on 
“ Hints for the Promotion of Economic Entomology in the United 
States,” will be read with much interest, and do great 
The call for the expansionand reorganization of the Department 
of Agriculture is opportune and meets a similar and constantly 
increasing demand for such a reorganization from the agricul- 
turists of the country and especially of the west. The few real 
| farmers, sprinkled with the mass of lawyers, politicians, merchants 

and professional men, who go to make up the bodies composing 

our state and natjonal legislatures, seem to have had little voice 
~ — in the past, in the Alliog of offices created ostensibly for their 
: benefit. 
= Tt is a burning disgrace that the agricultural interests of the 
country, which form the basis of our national prosperity, should 
have been represented in the seat of government by an untutored 
market-gardener like Isaac Newton; or should still be repre- 
_ Sented by one who is so little in sympathy with the progressive 
agricultural spirit, and who seems to give so much dissatisfaction, 
that hardly an agricultural journal in the land speaks a word in 
his favor. With a man at the head of this department, possessing - 
_ large culture and scientific attainment, like Dr. LeConte, or ex- 
raced ee knowledge and great executive abili, P like 


190 GEOLOGY. 


W. C. Flagg, J. P. Reynolds or H. D. Emery of Illinois; or ex- 
perience and popularity, like C. R. Dodge or Wm. Saunders (both 
at present connected therewith), there can be no doubt that it 
would þe infinitely more efficient in promoting the interests for 
which it was created; and less open to criticism. 

The agricultural interests of the country demand more attention — 
and better representation. If our merchants lost one tithe of 
what our farmers annually lose from insect depredations alone, 
they would immediately seek and undoubtedly obtain adequate 
protection from the government; for the simple reason that they 
are organized and work as one body. The farmers, heretofore, 
have been disconnected—a mere rope of sand, without concerted 
plan or object. But at present they are building up a powerful 
Š organization which is rapidly extending its strengthening and 
unifying arms over the whole country. It is an organization 
which, if not perverted from its originalaims, will soon become a 
very powerful lever in the promotion of the agricultural interests. 
May we not hope that through its instrumentality the plans and 

suggestions made by Dr. LeConte will at no distant day be ~ 
realized ! | 

Iy measures five and six (vol. vii, p. 722) as propounded in the 
paper, for the wholesale destruction of noxious insects, I have little 
confidence. Fires, lights, vessels of attractive or poisonous liquids 
are constantly recommended as means of counteracting the work 
of injurious insects; but my experience with them has been very 
unsatisfactory. Usually quite as many beneficial as injurious — 
species, and very seldom any really injurious species, are thus — 
captured ; and at the best such measures are blind and inefficient 
ways of effecting that which can be otherwise effected with more — 
certainty and satisfaction.—C. V. RILEY. : 


see Reeth See A : 
Sie FE eG RES CY in EN ee Rhy 0 1 Uy ace en eR 


GEOLOGY. 


: Bours or LAND Phiwi IN THE LOwER SILURIAN. ai Les- 
_ quereux contributes an article to the ‘ American Journal of Science 
` and Arts” for Jan., 1874, in which he’ reports the discovery 
near Lebanon, Ohio, of fragments of Sigillaria in clay beds, posi- 
tively referrible to the Cincinnati group of the Lower Silurian. 
oe This is a Saari discovery, as no land plants before this 
Se been found lo yi 


1 than the Lower aria division Ar the 


MICROSCOPY. — NOTES. - 191. 


upper Silurian in Gaspé, Canada. In Europe no land plant has 
yet been found below the Lower Devonian. 


MICROSCOPY. 

Emseppine Tissues ror Srcrion.— Dr. William Rutherford, of 
King’s College, London, prefers to embed tissue, which is to be 
cut without freezing, in a mixture of paraffine (5 parts) and hog’s 
lard (1 part) melted together; this mixture melting at a lower 
temperature than the wax and oil mixture, and being less liable to 
become loose by shrinkage in cooling. Tissues that require freez- 
ing are to be embedded and frozen in a solution of gum arabic 

_ (5 oz.) in water (10 oz.) and spirits of camphor (2 dr.), which, 
_ When solidified by cold, Slices ‘‘as easily as a piece of cheese.” 
Dr. Rutherford’s microtome consists essentially of a cylinder with 
‚a piston moved ky a screw, the upper portion only of the cylinder, 
where the object is, being surrounded by a box to contain the 
freezing mixture, of powdered ice and salt; the freezing box is 
surrounded by flannel, and the water continually forming in it is 
drained off by a tube through the bottom of the box 


Dissecting Empryos.— W. K. Parker, Esq., late president of 
the Royal Microscopical Society, dissects, early embryos under 
water, pinning them upon a cake composed of lamp-black and 
paraffine. : ; i 


’ 


| NOTES. 
i Tae Memortat To, Agassiz bids fair to be of such a char- 
~ acter as will be gratifying to’ his family arid most appropriate in 
Showing an appreciation of his work. At a public meeting held 
in Hosta on Feb. 13, a large number of gentlemen were preni 
and it was decided that the fittest expression of gratitude for 
Agassiz’ labors for science in this country, would be to insure the 
maintenance of the Museum which he worked so long and so faith- 
_ fully to establish for the benefit of the country. It was agreed 
_ that at least $300,000 should be raised by subscription as a me- 
_ morial fund for the purpese of endowing the Museum of Compar- 
ative Zoolugy in Cambridge. A large number of gentlemen, 
- Tesiding in various parts of the country, Were named as a nucleus 
_ Of a general committee for the purpose, as it was believed that the 
zni y to science all over the land, appreciating the worth 


192 BOOKS RECEIVED. 


of Agassiz, would be glad to aid in placing his Museum on a per- 

manent basis. The feeling has been so general and of such spon- 

taneous growth, that a memorial of this kind would be the only 

appropriate one for the present. We have not the least doubt but 

that the sum proposed will be at once obtained and we have heard | 

that about $70,000 were subscribed the day of the meeting. Let 
‘all who respected, the great naturalist, and who feel that science 
anid education have been advanced by his efforts in their behalf, 
give each according to his means, and let us hope that from the 
many offerings of grateful hearts the memorial fund will soon be 
far larger than the sum named. Well knowing the immense €x- 
pense of maintaining such a Museum, we trust that the Agassiz 
Memorial fund will not be allowed to stop at the compe z ely 
small amount proposed. 

In the reorganization of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 
made necessary by the decease of Professor Agassiz, the Trustees 
have wisely secured the separation of the curatorship from that of 
the Lawrence Professorship of Zoology and Geology, and abol- 
ished the office of Director. As now organized the two executive | 
officers of the museum are Mr. Atexanper Agassiz, Curator, 
and M. L. F. pr POURTALES, Keeper. Mr. Agassiz has also been 
elected by the Legislature to succeed his father as a trustee or 
; the museum. 


. 


4 


; BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Pia a aad Groups of Urbicolæ (Bleibierties Auct) By Samuel H, Scudder. $O, yet K 
pane D Dee oe 188 at Glaucopsyche from Eastern North America. By Samuel H. Scudder. Svo, 
"25, Washing ihe 8 ~ S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. No.1. es 

weg te California Academy A Sciences, 8vo, vol. v, Pt. 2. San Francisco, Jai 


Dries second edition. 
opi nal or states or of Min 4 Soden ty aN rom Fourth Annual : 
gopr vered before Dairymen’s oo By 
ma man oo nae eee a ath Pea ae i, Ptol, May-June, tie Boy E: 
HGN eres You gnogamous and Acrog ogeno ag aad af Supelt County, Long łslar z 
(annals of the Lyceum of Matural History of New York. Vol X, nos. 6-9. Mar: 1872-F¢b. " 


New ; 
: Berry of new Plants from the Pacific States. 8yo, pp. 27. (From Proc. ee 
of Chemistr stry. (Nature series), By G. F. Rodwell. 12mo. pp. 135. 24 
eee on the he reas Piro pe r neat before the Teachers" | 

ines County. pA ines Fre ih n pe. ar ae BS uiio. — -s Firma 


1873. — : 
: Account of the Operations ihe Gira Trigonom vicar we fh The Sta 
i phe Measure eee ite & cee aiso an ion AEA, Y the re har x y Operations oie op the 
: o 
492, Plates 3, eer oka i . By J. T. Walker, Superintende 


AMERICAN NATURAL ISL, 


Vol. VIII. — APRIL, 1874. —No. ‘4. 
COS RIOD o 
THE FLORA OF PENIKESE ISLAND. 


_ BY PROF. D. S. JORDAN. 


I etve here a list of the plants found on the Island of Penikese, 
and in the waters of Buzzard’s Bay in the neighborhood of the 
island, during the late session of the Anderson School of Natural 

History. This list is probably complete in the flowering plants 
and measurably so as regards the higher algæ.. The lichens, 
fungi, diatoms, etc., I have not o to identify and they are 
therefore omitted. 

The island as it now appears is absolutely treeless and Sois 
shrubless, and it is scantily covered with pasture grasses which 
furnish subsistence to flocks of sheep. Altogether it is about as 
_ barren looking a pile of rock and stone as one could well imagine. 

When Penikese was first known it was covered with a growth 
_ of trees said to'be similar to those now found on Martha’s Vineyard 
and Naushon. -Among these may be mentioned the red cedar, 
pitch pine, red maple, shag atk; shad, poplar birch, hornbeam 
and two or three species of sumach. Of this growth there is now 
No trace left save the rotten roots of a solitary beech stump and a 
_ few branches of red cedar and red maple (?) found buried in the 
a small swamp. 
list may have a aude interest tó future students at 
¢ and also a general interest to botanists, as showing 
a plants s survive a prolonged struggle for existence aeon 


? Congress, in the year 1874, by the PEABODY ACADE 
‘Librarian of A aren S Be : ar oF 
13 - (193) 


194 THE FLORA OF PENIKESE ISLAND. 


grass and sheep. There are no flowering plants on the island that 
are at all rare, but some species very common on the mainland 
are conspicuously absent, for instance the asters and golden rods. 
The flora of Gull, a very small island just separated from Peni- 
kese, is included. Several plants, as Lathyrus maritimus and Sol- 
idago sempervirens, are found there which are not in the flora of 
the main island. Probably they once grew there but have oo 
exterminated. Such plants are marked with a star(*). 


RANUNCULACER, ; x GERANIACEÆ. 
Ranunculus cymbalaria Pursh. Oxalis stricta L. 
CRUCIFERÆ. ANACARDIACEZ, 
Capsella Bursa-pastoris Mönch. Rhus toxicodendron L.* 


Sisymbrium officinale Scop. 


Lep idium TEEI cum L. ; 2 
B LEGUMINOSZ. Ý 
Brassica sinapistram Boiss. 
Cakile Americana Nutt. _ Trifolium repens L. 
Raphanus Raphanistrum L. Trifolium Pi parent L. 
: Trifolium arvense L. . 
. Lathyrus maritimus Big.* 
VIOLACES®. ; 
Viola sagittata Ait. acerca 
: : Potentilla argentea L. 
HYPERICACEÆ. Fragaria Virginiana Ehrh. 
i Fragaria vesca L. 
Hypericum mutilum L. ; Rubus villosus Ait. 
CARYOPHYLLACEÆ. t HALORAGEÆ. 
Cerastium viscosum L. ~ Myriophyllum scabratum Mx. 
Stellaria media Smith. : 
Arenaria peploides L F 
aria salina Presl. ONAGRACEÆ. 
Spergula arvensis L. 
ina procumbens L, - Ludwigia palustris Ell. 
- Mollugo verticillata L. 
p i E UMBELLIFERÆ. 
Archangelica Gmelini DC.* 
COMPOSITÆ. 


= Seeron Canadense L. : 
Solidago -sempervirens ns L.* 


THE FLORA OF PENIKESE ISLAND. 


Tya frutescens L. 

Ambrosia artemisiæfolia L. 
aehtiien millefolium L. 
Maruta cotula DC 


Leucanthemum vulgare Lam. 
a hati Tiot L 


a 6 i 
wT hthit hi fali Raf. 


Cirsium arve 
Cirsium rehire, Scop. 


Xanthium STS L: 
se Scop. 


Təraxacum Dens-Leonis Desf. 


PRIMULACE®. 


Anagallis aryensis L. 


PLUMBAGINACEÆ. 


Statice Limonium L.* 


PLANTAGINACEÆ. 
‘Plantago major L. 
Plantago lanceolata L. 
t 


SCROPHULARIACEÆ. 


ia Canad Spr. 
Verbascum Thapsus L. 


LABIATÆ. 


Teucrium Canadense L. 
Lycopus Europæus L. 


ig nigrum L. 
è : ASCLEPIADACEÆ. 


POLYGONACEÆ. 


Polygonum Hydropiper L. 


x obtusifolius SE 
PaE crispus L. 
Rumex acetosella L. 


CHENOPODIACEÆ®. 
Chenopodium album I. 
caer maritima Dumort. 
Salso i L. 
hai E ae ~ 
Atriplex patula L. 

Atriplex eraa Nutt. 
AMARANTACEÆ. 


Amarantus retroflexus L. 


EUPHORBIACEÆ. 


Euphorbia maculata L. 
Euphorbia polygonifolia L. 


ý 


SALICACEÆ. 


Salix discolor Muhl. 


BETULACES. 


Betula alba var. populifolia Spach. 


NAIADACEZ. 
Zostera marina L. 
Ruppia maritima L. 
IRIDACER. 
Iris versicolor L 
Sisyrinchium hium Bermudiana L. 
JUNCACEX. 


Jinen a Gerardi toisel 


Asclepias incarnata var. pulchra L. Juncus pelocarpus Meyer. 


195 


ee oe 
196 THE FLORA OF PENIKESE ISLAND. 


Juncus tenuis Willd. Laminaria saccharina Lam. 
La 


L 
CYPERACEE. . Laminaria longicorn rnis hapa 
s Grev. 


Cyperus filiculmis Vahl. Punctaria tenuissima pi 
Eleocharis palustris R.Br. Asperococcus echinatus Grev. 4 
Eleocharis acicularis R.Br. Chordaria flagelliformis Ag. 
Scirpus pungens Vahl. Chor a Ag. 
~ Scirpus maritimus L. - Lathesia tuberiformis — 
Carex scoparia Schk. Elachista fucico 
i Schk. Sphacelaria cirr’ af 
Ectocarpus lit uae s Trenin 
, Ectocarpus siliculosus Lyngb. ii 


GRAMINES. 
Agrostis alba L. ; ~ RHODOSPERMEÆ (Red Algæ). 
7 vulgaris With. ; 
Phleum pratense L. Rhodomela subfusca Ag. ii 
ia viridis Beauv. Polysiphonia formosa i 
taria glauca Beauv. olysiphonia subtilissima Mont. 
Anthoxanthum L. Polysiphonia Ol ary. 
ovina L. Polysiph i. 
estuca elatior L. Polysiphonia elongata Grev. 
Poa annua L. Polysiphonia violacea Gre é 
Poa pratensis L. ‘ Polysiphonia variegata Ag 
P Ehrh. Polysiphonia nigrescens Grev. 
Glyceria maritima Wahl. . i Pol nia . 
Spartina juncea Willd. i Piagem qen Grey. ' 
Spartina stricta Roth. — Dasya elegans 
i Calamagrostis arenaria Roth, Chadiol a parvula a a arvey. 
Triticum repens L. ~ $ Corallina officinalis L. $ 5 
>on lanatus L. 


sangui 
Aesan dichotomum L. S — sinuosa Lam. 
Panicum crus-Galli L. Lam. 


E fe Borreri Ag, : 
d » Callithamnion byssoideum Arn. 

ei Bailey. =>. Callithamnion corymbosum Ag. 
o Callithamnion seirospermum G 1 
mion plumula Lyngb- (* 
Americanum 


NOTES AND NESTING HABITS OF BIRDS. : 197 


* Callithamnion Turneri Ag. _ Ulva latissima L. 
Callithamnion Daviesii Ag. . Cle lophore arcta Dillw 
Callithamnion luxurians Ag. Ciadopho at land ysa Roth. 

p Cladop no 2 Griff. 


Cla adophora flexuosa Griff. 
CHLOROSPERMEX ( Grass-green Algz). Cladophora albida Huds. 
Cladophora gracilis Gri if. 


Br yopsis plumosa Lam Cla mn fracta Fl. Dan 

Vaucheria (species ‘ nik described by Chetomorpha ARRA. Web. and 
Harvey, allied to V. Murina). < 

Porphyra vulgaris Ag. (ements ærea Dillw. 

Bangia fuscopurpurea Lyngb. . - Cheetomorpha Olneyi Harvey. 

Enteromorpha intestinalis Linb. Hormotrichu tite nS Dillw. 

Enteromorpha ish e rg Calothtix confervicola. 

Enteromorpha compressa Gre ~ Calothrix sieocioesan 


Enteromorpha shachrats caer 


ON LOCAL VARIATIONS IN THE NOTES AND 
ESTING HABITS OF, ‘pean 


BY ROBERT RIDGWAT. 
Mr. Arren has called attention to the variation in the notes of 

different birds at remote localities ; and in this I am able to corrob- 
orate him, though I think that cases of such variation are very 
rare, and do not occur in more than perhaps five per cent. of the 
species. I have only detected it in two or three species after the 
most careful observation, and in very many cases noticed that 
there was not, in the minutest particular, any difference between 
individuals of one species on opposite sides of the continent. 
Such is undoubtedly the case in a very great majority of the spe- 
_ cies, any seeming variation that may be observed being more 
probably the peculiarity of an mdividual rather than the mani- 
festation of any regional impress. The only instances wherein I 
have yet been able to satisfy myself of a difference in notes in 
two regions are the following; Cardinalis Virginianus has a far 
finer song in southern Illinois than it has in Maryland, the notes 
_ being not only clearer and more musical, but the song more con- 
tinued and energetic; the effect being altogether richer. In the. 
vicinity of Washington, D. C., I have never heard, in a single in- 
stance, the Baltimore oriole (Icterus Baltimore) utter such mellow, 
flute-like notes, as it habitually does in southern Illinois. The 


198 NOTES AND NESTING HABITS OF BIRDS. 


brown thrasher (Harporhynchus rufus) also sings more vigorously 
in the latter locality.: In the far west I found the ground robins 
of the Wahsatch Mountains (Pipilo ‘‘ megalonyx”) to have such 
different notes from those of the eastern slope of the Sierra Ne- 
vada (in the neighborhood of Carson City) that it seemed that 
they must certainly be a different species ; not only did the song 
differ, but all the notes were different. Yet upon the closest com- 
parison of the specimens, no tangible differences in plumage or 
proportions could be detected in the majority of the specimens 
from the two localities, though occasional individuals from the 
latter place inclined, more or less, toward the form known as P. 
egonus. 
The exact nature of the difference in notes between certain - 
birds in the Potomac valley, and the valley ofthe lower Wabash, 
is a very marked restraint in the songs of the former, as if they 
were afraid of being heard. That they were more cautious in the . 
neighborhood of noisy cities, than in the country surrounding 
quiet and less populous towns, might be readily suggested asthe , 
solution of this difference, were it not for the fact that other spe 
cies, as, for instance, the robin (Turdus migr atorius), the mead- - 
ow lark (Sturnella magna), the catbird ( Galeoscoptes Carolinensis), — 
the Thryothorus Ludovicianus and numerous other species, sing aS 
boldly and in a precisely similar way among the parks and shade 
trees in the midst of Washington City as they do in the quiet 
towns and retired orchards of southern Illinois. This objection 
may ‘lose weight, however, when we consider that the species iD 
which I have noticed a difference are birds of. a suspicious and i a 
cautious nature, such as would be most readily influenced by the 
causes mentioned. . a 
‘Mr. Allen has called attention* to variations in the incite of : 
nesting, which he has noticed in many species of birds; and - 
places undue importance upon it in considering certain deviations 
from the usual manner as characteristic of particular localities. = 
_ My experience has been that such variations depend mainly upor 
the facilities afforded by the site of the location of the nest, and 
‘sometimes, no doubt, are the result of merely the caprice of the 
bird. The Quiscalus purpureus is cited as one example, and con- 
‘siderable stress is laid upon the fact of its placing the nest n 
peine of trees in a certain locality in New England. At Mt 
* See AMERICAN NATURALIST, VOl. Vi, p- 263. a 


NOTES AND NESTING HABITS OF BIRDS. 199 


Carmel, Illinois, where this species is very abundant, I have found 
its nests situated in a variety of ways upon one tree; some being 
saddled upon the branches, or supported in a crotch like those of 
the robin, and others placed in cavities, either natural ones such as 
knotholes or decayed places, or in the holes made by the larger 
woodpeckers (Hylotomus and Colaptes). I once found a very 
large colony of these birds breeding upon a small island in the 
Wabash River. The nésts were all placed in the tall slender wil- 
lows, none more than twenty feet from the ground, and many with- 
in easy reach without climbing; they were supported by small 
twigs against the body of the saplings, for there were no large limbs 
to support them. Probably more than a hundred pairs were nest- 
ing in this community, as upwards of seventy nests were found in 
a short time.’ Within the area of a square mile, I have found 
nests of the common dove (Zenaidura Carolinensis) upon trees, on 
the top of stumps in‘the thick woods, on the flat rail of a fence, 
. and upon the ground in grain fields ; also nests of Harporhynchus 
rufus in as diverse situations. Near Mt. Carmel the white-bellied ` 
swallow ( Tachycineta bicolor) nests exclusively in holes made by 
the downy woodpecker (Picus pubescens) and chickadee (Parus 
Carolinensis), in the dead stumps around lagoons in the bottom 
lands, in company with the golden swamp warbler (Protonotaria 
citrea), with which it shares these cavities. At Carson City, Ne- 
vada, this species was noticed to nest only about houses, in the 
eaves or over porches, as the purple martin (Progne subis) does in 
the east. - There were no trees there to accommodate them, which 
accounted for this deviation from their original habit. At Mt. 
Carmel, the purple martin and chimney swift (Cheetura pelagica) 
: have almost entirely forsaken these nesting places, and have ta- 
> ken up with man, the former being as domestic as house pigeons, 
=~ and the latter possessing themselves of the chimneys. But the 
white-bellied swallow pertinaciously clings to its primitive cus- 
tom. In California, according to various writers; and in Ari- 
zona according to Dr. Coues, the T. thalassina nests in holes in 
_ trees, but during two years of collecting in Nevada and Utah I 
“never saw a nest of this species so situated ; it constantly nested 
in horizontal fissures or crevices on the face of the limestone 
; cliffs, in company with the “ mud swallow” (Petrochelidon luni- 
> frons) and white throated swift (Panyptila melanoleuca). _ This 
_ was apparently not owing to a lack óf suitable places for nesting 


~ 


“ 


in the bark at one side of the nest ; probably eight out of every — 


- Side of cavities, either natural or made by woodpeckers, while one 


the soft wood of wild pa and sassafras treen, and frequen 


200 . : NOTES AND NESTING HABITS OF BIRDS. 


as it does in California and Arizona, for in the same localities 
were extensive aspen woods where T. bicolor and P. subis nested 
abundantly in holes made by the Sphyrapicus nuchalis. The infer- 
ence drawn from this fact is, that it has a natural preference to 
rocks as a nesting place, always ignores the trees where suitable 
rocks are to be found; and that its nesting in trees in districts 
where precipices are rare or wanting is merely an evidence that it, 
like other species, adapts its habits to the character of the local- 
‘ity. The red-fronted linnet (Carpodacus frontalis) nests about 
houses in California; choosing nooks and crannies about. the — 
buildings, as well as the shade trees, for nesting places. At Sac- 
ramento I found a nest of this species built inside the pendulous, 
basket-like structure of the oriole (Icterus Bullocki). Along the 
Truckee River, in N evada, another was found inside the mud nest 
of a cliff swallow (P. lunifr ons); around Pyramid Lake the 
species nested among the rocks, frequently in caves with the Say- 
ornis Sayus and Hirundo horreorum ; while in the wooded portions 


. 3: 
‘of the Truckee valley its nests were common in the “ grease wood! ete 


(Obione) bushes, along with those of Spizella Breweri and Poö- 
spiza bilineata, as well as in the cottonwood trees near by- Tt 
would require too much space to describe all the different situa- 
tions in which I have found the nests of Troglodytes Parkmanni, 
so that I will only mention some of the more remarkable instances 
of variation. In the Wahsatch Mountains, as well as in the 
‘Truckee valley, it was usual for the nests to be concealed behind 
the loose bark of a dead tree, the entrance being through a fissure 


ten nests would be so situated. Many, however, were found in- - 


was found built inside of a deserted robin’s nest in the croteh í of 
an aspen. 

- On the Truckee reservation one was found in the thatched via 
of the storehouse. Everywhere, throughout the mountain of the 
great basin, the sparrow hawk (Tinnunculus sparverius) nests on 
the cliffs, in holes among the rocks, in company with the Falo 
polyagrus. “At Mt. Cartel, I have found nests of Colaptes auratus 
in natural cavities in trees, and a nest of Centurus Carolinusin & — 
low stump by the roadside, about three feet from the ground. At 


the same place, Parus Carolinensis bores its own nesting: er 


NOTES AND. NESTING HABITS OF BIRDS. ee 


takes possession of natural hollows in stumps, uprooted “ snags,” 
me or the deserted excavation of the downy woodpecker. I found 
| a nest of the chimney swallow inside of a plank kiln for drying to- 
bacco, and another inside of the hollow trunk of a sycamore tree. 
At Olney, I found a nest of the blue jay, containing five eggs, 
` inside of an old deserted barn in the middle of the town, it being 
placed flat upon a sill. This is the only nest of the species I ever 
saw that was not placed inatree. At Mt. Carmel, I have also 
found a nest of Agelaius pheniceus, containing eggs, in a small 
elm tree about twenty feet from the ground. In Kansas the Eus- 
7 piza Americana is said to place its nest in trees ; but at Mt. Carmel 
it habitually places it on the ground in clover fields. The Chond- 
estes grammaca almost invariably nests on the ground in the 
Wabash valley. I have never found a nest otherwise located ; 
but at Sacramento, where dozens of nests of this bird were found, 
all but one were in oak trees, at heights varying from ten to thirty 
feet from the ground. It is difficult to understand why the species 
should be so much more arboreal in the vicinity of Sacramento, 
which is far more scantily wooded than the localities frequented 
by this bird, in Wabash valley. An instance of semi-parasitic 
habits is seen in the Otus Wilsonianus, which in Nevada habitually 
deposits its eggs in the old dilapidated nests of magpies. 

During a series of several seasons’ egg-collecting at Mt. Carmel, 
it was my constant experience to find several species of birds 
never laying more than three eggs at a complement; and the re- 
corded accounts of these species in various works saying that the 

Same birds laid habitually four or five eggs puzzled me consider- 
ably. Three eggs in a nest is the maximum number that I have 
_ ever found in Pyranga estiva and Cardinalis Virginianus. 


w 
p 


~ 


- are obovate, obtuse with an abrnpt point, almost sessile 5 


i ~ 


A NEW SPECIES OF WILLOW FROM CALIFORNIA, 
-~ -AND NOTES ON SOME OTHER NORTH 
AMERICAN SPECIES. 


BY M. S. BEBB. Sade 


SALIX LÆVIGATA, n. sp. Very glabrous, except the scales and = 
rachis of the catkin, and a few small caducous silky leaves at : 
the base of the shoots ; leaves elliptic-ovate or broadly lanceolate, 
pointed, finely serrulate, but the margin revolute and thus 
appearing entire, coriaceous, dark bluish green, glossy and prom- 
inently nerved above, paler beneath ; stipules small, ovate, cadu- 
cous ; petioles short (1’—4” long) not glandular; catkins cylindri- fe 
cal, 2 or 3 inches long in flower, the fertile becoming loose infruit, 
always borne on short lateral leafy branches; scales erose-den- 
tate at the apex, distinctly nerved, hairy at the base and on the 
inner surface; g¢ obovate, rounded and more evenly dentate, Ẹ 
narrower, truncate with a few irregular teeth, caducous (in out- 
line, when magnified, like the leaves of Potentilla tridentata); 
ovary.globose-conical, smooth, long stalked (as in S. amygaarot 
des) ; stigmas sessile, 2-lobed ; stamens 3—5.—California, at Santa 
Cruz, Dr. C. L. Andersson, to whom I am indebted for a very M- 
teresting collection of California Salices. Ukiah, Kellogg and 
Harford, No. 921.. Alameda Co., Bolander, in herb. A. Gray- _ 

A remarkable species of the Amygdaline group, distinguish- 
able from all forms of S. nigra Marsh. (the only near ally m the 
U. S.) by the conspicuous dentate scale, and very different foliage. 
S. lasiandra Benth., a western modification of S. lucida, has = 
obscurely dentate scale, but is otherwise very unlike. As tae 
buds expand, two or three small scale-like leaves appear clo het 
beneath and fringed on the margin with ferruginous silky hairs; 
these soon fall off; the lowest persistent leaves on the branches 
: are followed by, others broader, more pointed, on short age 
passing into the lanceolate taper-pointed form of the fully dev = 

oped foliage. / 
_ §. PYŘIFOLIA Andersson. This elegant species, recorded PY 

Andersson from the Lake Winnipeg and Saskatchewan 1e 


* 


THE ROBIN. 203 


was sent me by the Rey. Jas. Fowler from New Brunswick, ei 
from within our own limits by Dr. Clarke from Flint, Mich. ; two 
widely sundered stations on our northern boundary, ot 
the possible occurrence of intermediate ones. The only additional 
‘Specimens in Prof. Gray’s herbarium are two ¢ fragments named 
by Andersson, enough to confirm the correctness of the above de- 

termination. The typical form has round, sub-cordate, very thin, 
reticulate veined leav es, slender petioles, small caducous stipules, 
foliaceous peduncles, and very long, and slende? pedicels, The 
var. obscura (apparently a more vigorous growth of the same 
plant?) would be likely to escape observation from its general re- 
semblance to some forms of S.cordata. - | ’ 
S. ADENOPRYLLA Hook. This is another and most interesting 
addition to our willows of the Northern States. lts occurrence on 
sandy beaches of the Great Lakes I have already noticed in “The 

ns.” 3 


S. Currerr Tuck. If Dr. Andersson’s var. Labradorica (DC. 
Prodr. xvi, p. 292) is rightly associated with our White Mountain 
plant, then the old name of Uva-Ursi Pursh ought to be restored 
for the Labrador plant, and ours become its var. Cutleri 
1. S. T. Olney observes that S. tristis Ait. owes “folly a 
fortnight later than S. humilis.” This is noteworthy, as S. tristis 
affects warm, sunny knolls, and would therefore be expected to 
flower earlier instead of later than its more robust congener, S. 
| tristis var. microphylla. For all I know this variety rests upon a 
single gathering, distributed by Mr. Oakes many years ago; prob- 
ably a forma monstrosa. I had in my garden last summer 
precisely the same “rigid and contorted” leaves produced on S, 
viminalis by insects infesting the under surface, but have looked 
in vain over acres of S. tristis for specimens to match those of 
Mr: Oakes. 


Tar A American ròbin (Turdus migratorius) is too well known 
every resident of the ‘United States, to require any extended 
c E S r at the ignorance of 


hal Be ya 


f 


‘crow blackbird (Quiscalus versicolor) and the cuckoo (Coceygus 


_ the owner, when she had thus been robbed, and appropriate it ee 
her own, depositing a remaining egg of her clutch, or Maye 


_ turbs the rights of other birds. Occasionally she only drops moo 


ee THE ROBIN. 


farmers and countrymen in general, as to his character and 
habits. They shoot and stone, and destroy and berate, but 
never praise him; still he perseveres, in the very teeth of ‘an 
adverse fate, and comes regularly with the spring months, 
appearing sometimes, in clement seasons, in eastern New York, 
in February, and remaining oftentimes when ‘the fall is favorable 
until late in November, and instances have keen known when a : 
straggler separated from the main flock has remained, and survived : 
the severity of a winter in latitude 42° north, in a locality where 
evergreens were prevalent. The robin can accommodate himself 
to a variety of food, and during the summer season is the farmers ` 
best friend, . He is hardy and robust and brave, one of our val- 
uable, but most badly~abused birds. His food is mainly insectiv- 
orous, from the time he comes amongst us until late in the 
autumn. He makes occasional visits to the cherry tree but does 
not depend on it for a subsistence as he is supposed to do. He 
pecks at the cherries because they are red, just as he would pick 
to pieces a red flower. The species appears fond of the color. 
In the fall they feed largely on wild berries, and are slaughtered 
by the thousands by sportsmen along the lines of the Hudson, in 
the cedar thickets, which they frequent, feeding on the berries, 
on the islands in the harbor of New York Bay, and in New Jersey- 
Iam too much the friend of this bird to; be blind to his petty 
faults, for petty indeed they must remain so long as his increase _ 
is kept in rigid restriction by his many enemies. The crow 
(Corvus Americanus) commits fearful and cruel depredations 02 
the robin and his belongings. The species is a bitter foe to all a 
smaller birds, and keeps- thèm in severe check, but the-robin a 
suffers numerous outrages from other hands, and the elements some- . 
times play him a mischievous trick. Not only the crow, but the 


Americanus) often rob the nest after the eggs are laid, and : 
all the female’s labor proves in vain. The robin will steal into 
the nest of one of her own kind, during a temporary absence OF 


more and, if plucky, will drive off the legal owner, and da 
er GY 


bold possession, bestow all her care thereon, but she nev 


egg into a sister’s nest when taken short, her own being destroyed, 


. 


THE ROBIN. 205 


but the act is never deliberate or voluntary, a habit that is 
never practised among the species except in extreme cases of 
necessity, for regular bird life has its laws that are observed, and 
crimes and persecutions are often punished. The nest, which is 
an extravagant, clumsy affair, extravagant as to material em- 
ployed, is patted up by the feet at the fork of limbs, and is 
moulded in the inside by the breast, the bird turning round and 
round many times with the tail hugged down close on the outer 
rim, the female performing all the labor. The male takes no part 
in this structure, but is stationed near as a guard, and gives the 


alarm if danger portends, while the mater en famille is absent in 


quest of material. If all be quiet and serene, a snatch of song 
may greet the listening ear, but it is hurried, for the male is 
deeply interested in operations, and feels a heavy responsibility 

resting on his shoulders. When the female is descried with a 
supply in her beak, he immediately flies to meet and accompany 
her. The two alight near and survey the premises when, if all be 
right, the labor goes on vigorously. This. work occupies them 
three or four days, sometimes a shorter period, according to the 
urging necessity of nature that the bird feels. The eggs are de- 
posited daily, until the number is dropped. The robin on an 
average lays four eggs, but I have seen five eggs, followed by five 
birds in one nest, all one mother’s progeny, but there are oftener 
three. Two appears to be the lucky number for the robin, and 
they usually go mated from the nest. A robin lodged her nest 


_ Ma small tree near my dwelling last year in the after part of 
__ May, and reared three young. When they were able to leave the 
_ ‘est, another was built a little farther off in the fork of a young 


pear tree, not more than five feet from the ground. ‘In this nest 
was brought up, right under the loaded boughs of a cherry tree, 


_ two fine birds, a male and a female, and all my sedulous watching 
never caught them in the guilty act of carrying cherries to the 
_ nest. The birds had become accustomed to me, and familiar, and 
Dever appeared to stand in fear of my scrutinizing presence, 
gem they eyed my movements as closely as I viewed theirs ; 


ut I always observed a formal distance, and held in respect their 
Individual rights : thus was I tolerated without giving g disturbance. 


The robin rears but two broods in one season. After the first 


brood. leaves the nest, in a day or two, they are turned over 
ig to en a of the male, who ips protects, and keeps — 


206 THE ROBIN. 


in close proximity, while the female is occupied with prepara- 
tions for a second family. The second nest is not very far re- 
moved from the first, and fortunate indeed must the parents be if : 
these two broods all grow to be adult birds. If the male gives no 
assistance in building the nest, yet he has his duties to perform 
which become him marvellously. As soon as the birds are out of | 
the shell it is his business to clear out the nest of all offensive 
matter, and keep it clean of all excrement until the birds have 
flown, provide all the food, which is purely insectivorous, and sit 
upon the nest in the female’s absence, which is no small ignoble 
office for so brave and noble a fellow as cock robin. He finds 

but little time now for his loud, long strains. His part of duty 

will not bear neglect. 

The young, when left undisturbed, seldom go far away from the 
home nest, although when they once leave, they never enter it 
again. It is left in an uncleanly state, generally alive with vermin, | 
which soon leave the young bird. The robin is remarkably clean 
in every habit, and takes a daily bath. I was much amused one 
day, the past summer, at à little incident that occurred in the front 
yard under the cherry tree. i oo 

A female robin was gathering materials for a second nest, 


picking from around the roots of rose bushes, the long dead 4 

“grasses, until her. beak was filled and the ends flowed out like 
silken hairs, when suddenly one of her own young ones, 4 pretty i 
mottled little creature, alighted in front of her and, opening wide e 
her yellow throat, begged for food. The mother thus taken with- 
: ated k on the a 


head as a reproof, which did not have the desired effect, 5O Ms 
immediately plunged the whole contents of her beak down the little 
one’s throat and flew away. The poor little thing had a long aP" 

difficult tug, in clearing its throat of the unstable commodity, but 
the repentant parent soon returned with wholesome food, am” 
gave her offspring, after which the male appeared, and piloted = 
the offending charge to an adjoining tree. No doubt mine fom 
a gave her liege lord a severe curtain lecture, upon the occasion. 


few. Has any one ever observed the manner i 
proaches its object, how cautiously, politely, quietly, it P 
moving with one eye ever on the alert for danger, and the 
solicitously bent on the particular thing of its desire! 


THE ROBIN. 207 


advances, then recedes, then bows and courtesies with all the 
suavity of a Frenchman, and peers inquiringly, stooping down low, 
placing its nimble little body in a thousand graceful positions, as 
it slowly, steadily and discreetly approaches its object of con- 
cern? 

. If I should venture to say that not a cherry would grow, fit to 
be eaten, were it not for the birds, the bare idea would be hooted 
as preposterous, yet such nevertheless is my belief. Were it pos- 
sible to remove all the birds out of the way, for one season at least, 
what a decided difference would our future orchards present! 
Where now are thrifty growths, beautiful leafage, and large crops 
of fair fruit, would be seen stinted, moss-grown limbs with sparse 
or meagre foliage, crops of dwarfed specimens, that have finished 
their growing, in a knotty, wormy, inferior state. The majority of 
all the large families of insects are bred in the earth, and go 
through various forms in different stages of existence and are de- 
voured by birds of every description, chief among which stands 
our friend, the robin. 

The robin sits eleven days. On the eleventh the young are out 
of the shell, and on the eighth their eyes are wide open and 
bodies covered with pin feathers. In eleven days more they leave 
the nest on an average, although when the nest be not crowded 
they remain two days longer. Upon close observation the plumage 
of the adult, robin is tame, but rich and mellow, with soft colorings. 
The top of the head is dappled in brown and black, with delicate 
markings and pencillings at the throat where it meets the cinnamon 
breast in the male. The female is lighter in color and has no rosy 

_ tinge to the neck feathers. There is but a slight difference in the 
size of the male and female, but the general shape and build of 
the birds is marked so perceptibly that a practised eye can readily 
distinguish between the two. In general appearance the female 

_is the larger bird, but the male is stronger, closer and altogether 

_ ‘More powerful in limb. The large bright eyes in both sexes are 
_ Set in a ring of white. As a songster, the robin does not rank 

: , yet there are some rare singers among the species. A 

2 singer has a long, slender body, a long neck, long tail, dark, rich | 

Pe mnage, soft like satin. He is a fine bred bird. All are not first 

Í singers, Nature does not appear to endow all with her rare 

gift. Where there is one that is a singer there are scores that are 
only mediocre. The robin’s note is peculiarly mellow and flute 


` 


ee 


_ very showy flowering plant, which has so far resisted the drou 
_ azure of the sky above—a sea of blue. The plant is Delphinium 


of April the root-leaves make their appearance, and as they far- 


208. |. RAMBLES OF A BOTANIST IN WYOMING TERRITORY. 


like, sometimes a little irregular and extray ragant, but, when fol- 
lowed closely, through all its various changes, vibrations and in- 
tonations, is found to possess a striking sweetness and freshness, 
seldom excelled and rarely equalled, if we except the beautiful 
strain of the hermit ‘thrush. He gives to his lower notes a quiet 
dash of subdued sadness, and then immediately swells them to 

upward bars of wondrous perfection and beauty. He has a set 
of notes in an under key that are seldom heard by the unobservant 
ear, and if heard are attributed to another bird. He gives a clear, 
quick, military call and has a piercing cry of distress. Tlie notes 
‘about the nest are all suppressed and low, but yet clear and dis- 
tinct. They are uttered by the female and are the language of 
the mother to her offspring. She has no distinct song. 


4 


\ 


RAMBLES OF A BOTANIST IN WYOMING 
TERRITORY. 


N 
BY REV. E. L. GREENE. 


“NO: i 

Wirn the month of July, the varied profaston of flowers be- 

gins to be greatly reduced on the high plains, whose rich spring 
; flora was briefly sketched in the last number. ie 
On the third of this month we stood upon the summit of a ridge — 
commanding a view of many surrounding miles of these treeless 
lands. The grasses, under the constant sun and the now advanc- 
ing drought, were already losing their freshness of color, 
becoming cured, uncut, into hay for the antelope and the domestic 
herd, to feed them during the next eight months. ‘There is yet onè 


and is now giving to even hundreds of acres of ground the very 2 
azureum Michx., a perennial species of larkspur. In the_ month 
nish then the only sort of green herbage that has been seen 1 


meny months, herdsmen are obliged to exercise all i 
) cattle away Tom the tracts which this plant occupies. 


- 


# 


| RAMBLES OF A BOTANIST IN WYOMING TERRITORY. 209 


leaves when eaten cause speedy death, and so this great beauty of 
the plains is known to the settlers by the name of “poison weed.” 

On the stony ridge, our point of observation, there was not 
much left at this season to interest us, save the fruits of the As- 
tragali and other remains of the flowers of spring. A little daisy- 
like composite, with white rays, quite stemless and altogether un- 
noticeable but for the comparatively large sizé of its flowers, was 
new to us then, and a good acquisition, proving .to be Nuttall’s 
Townsendia strigosa. Another tenant of this same series of hills 
now in flower is Eritrichium glomeratum DC., a coarse hairy bien- 
nial a foot high, belonging ‘to the’ natural order Borraginacez. 
Along the dry margin of what had been a pond at an earlier date, 
we found an abundance of a very small Gilia (G. minima Gray) 
which, as we have never seen it anywhere else, in all the region, 
must be accounted as rare in these parts, as it is minute and inter- 
esting. Gilia congesta Hook., a handsome species, is how to be 
found. in a good state for collecting, growing in the gravel beds 
along Crow Creek, at Cheyenne, and with it the splendid blue- 
flowered Pentstemon glaber Pursh. 

The railway station, Sherman, some thirty or thirty -five miles 
west from Cheyenne, has an altitude of about two thousand feet 
above that of Cheyenne, and the flora of that vicinity is still more 
interesting than that of the region we have just been noticing, 
eSpecially at this season of the year. It was on the 3d of July 
that we had a delightful ramble among the rocky “ Black Hills,” 
_in this part ef the Territory. Although this district does not suf- 
fer from drought as do the lower altitudes, yet timber appears 
always to have been scarce. One can see that whatever was 
available for the purposes of fuel and ties for the railway has 
long since been appropriated, and there now remain only a few 
Scattered pines (Pinus ponderosa Dougl.) on the hills, and some 
little groves of aspen (Populus tremuloides Mx.) in the moist 
Valleys. There are straggling bushes of *‘wild sage” (Artemisia _ - 
tridentata Nutt. -) growing on all the Milly portions of the land, and 


bal 


a 


~ 


cra 


216 RAMBLES OF A BOTANIST IN WYOMING TERRITORY. 


also those of the herbaceous plants, with the severity of the night’s 
frost, even in early July. 
On dry open grounds we found an abundance of Castilleia m 


viflora Bong., a fine scarlet-flowered species peculiar to the 


west, and with-it a more strictly alpine, and a yellow-flowered one, _ 
C. breviflora Gray. These two, together with plenty of that most 


_ handsome Pentstemon, P. acuminatus Dougl., were enough to con- 


` culus affinis R. Br.; and also an ‘Allium, species uncertain, for we 


a 


vert even the hte Wise barren hillsides into a paradise of beauty. 
Among the grasses and sedges of the marshy places, were quan- ` | 
tities of a large “ buttercup,” an unusually showy form of Ranum- 


YS 


indulged a natural dislike fot the whole tribe of leeks, and passed 
by these really handsome purple-flowered ones without taking one 


specimen for our herbarium. A fine ‘‘monkshood” (Aconitum 


nasutum Fisch.), its flowers in most cases dark purple, but in- 
other specimens yellowish-white, was also very conspicuous in 
wet shades; and in the edges of these wet places, grew Hedysa- 
rum boreale Nutt. and Astragalus alpinus sie both interesting 
leguminous plants not often met with. 

One crystal brooklet had its margins adorned with the large = 
yellow purple-dotted corollas of Mitimihes luteus L., while the- x 
damp ground near by was neatly carpeted with Veronica serpy 
lifolia L. These two elegant Scrophulariacez, one belonging í east- 


_ ward and the other more exclusively to the distant west, have ‘met 


` had found it twice in Colorado, in shaded ravines, in the original 3 
_ Slender form: but this Wyoming plant has far more numerous and 


: bini for the frat ‘she, m all our tos Mountain vamblós, 


here on common ground; and with them was a very diffuse An- = 
drosace, with pale foliage, the species doubtful. ; 

Out again upon higher and drier land we suddenly came upon — 
quite an unexpected rarity in Ranunculus Nuttallii Gray. Wes 


more showy flowers than before seen. It is quite abundant, too, 


n TREES oe Gray. It was the — variet> 


+ BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 211 


and all the flowers pure white. This alone, we then thought well 
worth our thirty miles’ journey on horseback; but a few weeks 
later, the discoverer of the plant conducted us to one of his orig- 
inal localities of it, near the summit of. Parry’s Peak in Colorado. 

At the margin of a shallow pond, walled in on one.side by 
rocks, and hidden on the other by a growth of aspens, we fright- 
ened, from his herborizing' among the sedges, a fine black-tailed 
deer and gathered for ourselves some large specimens of the 
brilliant Pedicularis Grenlandica Retz, and the large silvery 
leaves of the rare Nardosmia sagittata Hook. ‘But the day was 
now past the meridian, and we were obliged to take leave of this 
interesting ground, in order to reach Cheyenne at a reasonable 
hour of the evening, gathering by the way, upon the lower plains, 
the vespertine Mentzelias and Œnotheras, which unfold their 
petals towards sunset, and breathe Kurang upon the air of 
Hn 


BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 


— BY DR. C. C. PARRY. 


———_o—— 
. NO. IV.— APPENDIX; DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES, ETC. 


Tae numbers are those affixed to the tickets in the distributed 
collection, and referred to in the preceding articles. The charac- 


ters or descriptions which follow are by the botanists respectively 


whose names are appended to their several contributions, — in 
which the collector, having been summoned to a remote frontier, 
is able to take only a small part. 


Esir.—Acaulescent, minutely soft-pubescent; leaves all anew 


Aquinecia JON 
Sighs the persistent scale-like dilated bases of their petioles imbricated on the stout 
ascending bran ches i e roo tstock, biternately divided; the primary Toe with 
ent 


eo 


g straightish spurs; styles long, exserted ; pods turgid, Sieh ete ee ooth.— 
ot crevices of 1 ntain forming 
Close clusters.~ A remarkable and most distinct, very dwarf species, colleeted eted July 

B mostly out > flower, and with Eon k fruit; but a few blossoms were se- 
Cured. _The species is dedicated to Capt. W. A. Jones, U. S. Engineer, who first 
detected ted this interesting species, and to ‘woes efficient aid as Commander of the 
expedition t 


Won LOC 


O.C. Page 


212 " BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. . 


3. STANLEY droiext0sa—Very pak spe Mena or a rate diate (es pe 
d low natifid 
to l 


lower p radical 

in the manner of S, pinnatifida, t the upper ‘ope entire iya hastate, passin eu 
ceolate and finally into stubulate, bracts for the lower flowers; race e very gee 
and thick, and a P 7 lon iB, of aet innumer- 
able pale ¢ cream-colored flowers} pedicsa in n fruit wep the tepe 2 the p 
stipe: Biennial, perhaps times peren- 
nial by offshoots, one to. three feet igh. Petals Vicente, ohloñg, p err E 
centre. Stigma green.—C, C. ~a ; 

DRABA VENTOSA.—Depressed aa cæspitòse, branching from slender rootstocks, 
canescently tomentose a the aha ANEN i areke bee vor = oe Br 

mostly tufted branches, spatulate oblon "o oboy rigid; pedu ; 
fruit exserted beyond the leaves, corym tae 3- b-lowered; ‘pets golden: yellow 
silicle oval or orbicular, tomentulose-hir sute, tipped witha 2 
high rocky peak o ove rlooking Snake and Wind River valleys. The larger and as laxer 
leaf 


: es 3 to 5 or even 6 lines long, of soft and herbaceous texture, obtuse and» i 
pointless taperin ng to the base; the pubescence wholly soft and Pia ‘the stellular — 
tuft generally slender-stipitate. Scape or peduncle half an inch to nearly an inch in ; 
length tae fally develo oped. Petals obovate-or spatulate, i hen k Silicle fully 2 ; 
lines wide, 24 to 34 lines lon ng; the abrupt style half a line to nearly a line long. n 
foliage is not unlike that of the imperfectly known D. cag arpa Gray, of the Sierra 

da—A. GRAY, Ss 
65. ASTRAGALUS a VENTORUM Gra s.—Somewhat canescent 
fr 


E 
m 
®© 
4 
ee 
EEG: 
a 
es 
es 
eS 


on. 
egume sess ie, sligh tly pamens turgid, oblong, 
eee OOE, Sights Por id, aris ene; the ventral suture s$ f 
nent and the dorsal slightly impressed.—Co lect ted on Wind keri differing from nb 
other species of the section in its ~~ arnt is that of A: succumbens, in its yello 
flowers a pi rlegumes.—s. 


PE 
© 
2 


WA 

75a GALUS (PECTINATI) reg en Parry MS Distinguished from A A. pectinatus : 
by: ss snake leaflets, which are 1-14 inclies long by 14-24 lines broad, qui er = 
- veined, and yah bag somewhat thinner pod, ascending instead of deflex pd He pets 


i oe yel 7—On the gr avell 
nn Reese cen Piniri a: mcr high, hoary, with at 3 thin Jobat ere 
"stam; pints several from a rather ock, simple, naked sar ma 


wood sim 
summit DE * single large head; alibi nea enspidate; oie of hes 


very mneh senmi 


uere in 

numerous, i. over pelt aa an inch in length akenes very white-villou rez 
l4. TOWNSENDIA PARRYI.— Perennial, canescently pubes ae “eles 

ah leaves rosulate, obovate-apatulate, 0 ften apiculate, perk into 

į pedu uncles stout (2-4 inches long), solitary or several, 
low, nak 


wr lanceolate, acute, herbac 


di. with scarious lace 
ble the length 


, persisten n nat Ve 
n the —In the Wind River Range at 9,000 feet. : 
ra on p. 1. 1 “This very, beautiful, daisy is elosely gba h 
ra, 2 h the saniat 
s are fully as lar ge as those of T. . grandiflora (ag to 2 inches Nady" 
ety ed a a therays bright blue. ‘The involucral scales 
‘than in EOE OA 0 ies fos neatly apienimed, ae 


$ BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. ~ 213, 


ery fine specimens of the above, Dr. Parry has also collected T. spath ulita A =T Prai 
g Os 34 142 and 1 15), and a single plant of a very different species which he pro- 
— to eall = TEA eres 
ae ATA a number.’ See p. 106). — It has a proper caudex two inches MB Fe) 
marked w ane s of former leaves, and at the top bears a dense mass of 
a oni. Walle haley leaves, and, buried among them, a single wishes: ae 
of rous very 


but scantier. le rays are pale pink, and about eight lines long, and the disk-flore ` 
exceedingly numerous. Not having seen a specimen of Nuttall’s T. incana, I have y 
some doubt as to whether this may not be his plant of that name. If not, it may prop- 
erly bear the name serge Dr. stro has proposed. It grew on a high peak in north- 

western ee oming.— D. C. EATON. 

fares PPUS (S ) MU TICA ULIS.—Stenotus parane Nutt., Torr. and 
Gra; Wiha River.—An n interesting redise covery of th + species, w. wate h seems 
to be truly distinct asa A. a GRAY 

HKUHRIA INTEGRIFOLL iia tary puberaent becoming glabrate; ‘itor ; 
Ss seep stems a “sg high fro caudex, leafy only at base, hearing 
a. 


A p p 3 
to four OT uve lo ose »ova 


, 


sometimes abiha entire, lightly 3-nerved, pi A narrowed into a slende peti- 


pops 1 fin 
by the excurrence of the stout ut midrib or eae in the peer print ers 
ridges. 


are arinena ifolia) was collected 
Fs Prof. Newberry in sean Sioana several years ago, at “San Juan” pres 
in Utah 1 or New Mexico); and Dr- Parry has now ound it much farther north. The _ . 
hed revision which I have recently _ 


made of the genus, as now e xtended accor rding tothe views of Bentham in the Genera ` * 
ram, it is made to include Achyropappus (of which section we have S. 

_ Neo-Mezicana, 8. Bigelowii, S. Woodhousei, S. pedata, "s $. Maa all but the first 
published by-me under Bahia or Achyropappus; and now the present species adds a Y 
latyschkuhria, with praa Aap patna ila and habit, but 

rs of Achyropappus.— A. G: 
PARRYI.— About a foot saa E and glandular; stem simple, 
d above, bearing (excepting bracts) only one ot two pairs of cauline leaves an 
1 heads; radi cal and lowest cauline leaves ovate or ovatę-lanceolate 


EE E E. f 
1} 3 sy + it let, 1 4 3 PRERE 


acu 

involucre somewhat — rays ei akenes almost glabrous: “pappus jonsei 
 barbellate in the manner of 4. mollis.— olia, var. discoidea lat a 
in Sill. Jour. 33, p. 238. e tose enhanc Gray in Proc. Acad. pence a ta 
P. 68. Mountains of Colorado (Parry, Taa nd Harbour, Greene), ee now found a 
by Dr. Te in Wyoming. eat Mr. Nevius sends a specimen from the mountains in a 
Oregon, Sied on one hand t 4A. mollis, on the other to broad leaved f Pona of A. oe 
alpina. S ie: i th i f which are hard to 


3 


2 


Sn Tine Sige artis e L- 


tid. Chamissonis Tor and Gray, in part.. This isa 
which abounds f the Rocky Mountains to . 


Our North species thro out ellow anthers and more | 
1 ETI ao ee og to pecs and the othet Aleutian 
1 ; ‘which | haye blackish anthers. were by Harrington an 


nalaschkensis has the tube o: 


bmg under the command of the latter; and a they seem to be disney 
is js 8 d to b 


\ 
214 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 


the Sierra ade ae in the latter region passing into var. incana, a densely white-to omen- 
tose variety. c s Nu ttall’s A. qo a sears I = — to A. Chamissonis, incor- 
rectly, as I am now to run together inextricably. 
Nuttall name is a good one, and so, on the whole, is the, species which on a survey 


of the genus 3 seems necessary Fr revive.—A. m 
202. PHELIPÆA (APHYLLON) L TEA.—Res P. fasciculata; but the whole 


esembles 
plant is of a light yellow color wads more aadal -hairy ; peduncles only about twice 
the length of the flower; corolla raphe ia —Dry and sandy hillsides, Owl Creek; 
parasitic on roots J grasses. —C. C. PAR 
215. PEDICULARIS PARRYI Gray, var. aa —Abundant in pine woods at the 
foot of Topar Lake. I do not find an af cna. characters to ciatiagoie pe 


from Aera Parryi of the Colorado cky Mountains, except the sei dull 
ile flowers, the lan a bracts, ‘laments byas ly hairy, and lea more 
aod Sade: with the divisions broader and I. CO. C.P 3 
S PARR iffers from O eater 


broader rot ard its more cope somal tris ge lower lip equalling in length t 
roa 


io” 
Su 
og 
= 
g 
o 
nm 
w 
= 
© 
3 
© 
a 
o 
S 
z 
R ad 
© 
$9 
Sed 
0 
tor 
et 
n 
D 
5 
Ò 
=} 
co 
= 
© 
ki 
za 
© 
> 
oe 
m 
3 
Z 
|3. 


Pacific mire ete. Flo Tine long; the re er rather ya t; the axils of 
green and foliaceou e ON emer bracts; calyx 2-cleft to the middle nearly 
"oE ue Paaha corolla and created slightly akaa $ 
CAR s Ol oA —Spike ate or nearly round en ont Jong, 7 pe. a 
e base * 


short, leafy, lower margins hyaline; stigmas 2; perigynium narrow, ovate, e 
(32 mm. long, *8 mm. wide), tapering to a very slender beak with an suites cut mem- 
branons ioe fringed BS top. ny Jerred dou bly serr i and win ged on the 
, longer than the entire ovate 
acute hyaline green nerved scale (21 mm. Da pee 5 bradi. never hispid ; achenium 
es aw co; lorea, ahos, stiped ors mm. long, -6 mm. wide).—Stipe 4 mm. long; achen! ium 
8 cm. 


„> 


. 


wings ana serratures of the peri ey not extending 1 to the bate —5S. T. 

307. (5-20 aa ae 
4-angled, slender, tapering to a very fine point, bright green, $ soft; epidermis cells 
elongated ; hie stomata, but akin Bavipbatinal bast bundles; sporecarp M 
i he i unspotted; s (0° 


SPTUDKB CCeply 


illose e 
Nevada of a ae an a borta of 5,000-10,000 fèet, “ scattered or rarely Sean 
‘patches ” (Tuolumne, Mount Dana, Mono-t o-trail, Cisco, Mary’s Lake, H. Boland 400. 
and 1870), and on the Rocky goa gop i densely cæspitose penge Lake K 
feet alt. C. C. Parry, No- 307, 1873). f 
_ This species represents in the western mountain regions ow 

__ Isoétes echin ra var. Braunii, and the Bes pr 


+ 


and | towards the base. The m iite, mostly pointed warts o 


almost obliterated. The specimens Son ello ARRS e Lake are characteriz 
= r smaller macrospores (028-038 m mm. wide) and é a Kinar smaller (0-026 -0 s. 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. B15 


EREN tapering dark-green leaves, with very short, often eyen square ee — 
without stomata or bast-bundles;. circular sporocarp witha very narrow velum; ma 

crospores 0°36-0°50 mm. wide, marked with smaller bad more regular, sate eem deag 
rather sharp points; microspores (0024-0027 mm. long) brown, very minutely papillose 
ær almost smooth: : , dee — d in 


t th. arge , covering gravel, deeply i 
G running water, on the Mono-trail, eastern declivity of the Sierra Nevada, 7000 feet alt., 
. H. Bolander, 1866. Closely allied to the last species, distinguished by its s stout, shor 
leaves niente stomata, and the markings of the larger macrospores, etc.; in many 
ct r T. lacustris: 


= ghar A. Braun in litt.— Terrestrial, trunk scarcely lobed; [eaves 

(20-60), a 7 in. long) 3-angled, nea se erect, light-green,.with numerous stomata 

and 3 Boal eei häst bundles; sporocarp mostly oblong, entirely covered by the ve- 
ma s (035-0 í 


a rown. 
flats or springy declivities in Oregon; on the apinan ig all, 1833; Camass 
Prairies of thé Cœur Te Chs. Geyer, 1843; Will sy anes: E. Hall, No, 693, 
1871. Thin but ewe ves, as most land Isotte® have, a three strong bast-bundles 
corresponding the 3 angles. Trunk rhombic in transverse section, eje super- 
ficially divided eva shallow groove into two lobes. Closely allied to Z. melano, 
of the Mississippi Valley, which Mr. Hall lately discovered also in aig at, resem- 
bling in the velum the two Florida species I. —— and I. Chapma 
ISOETES ECHINOSPORA Dur., var. BRAUNI! Engelm.—In the "Uintah emai at 
9500 feet alt., S. Watson. The westernmost and the highest known locality of this 
SQ PE ENGELMANN. 
ÆCIDIUM PsSORALEX.—Spots none; ein abundant, generally occupying all the 
lower canals of the leaf, rarely a few on the upper surface, short margin crenulate; 
~ spores sub-globose and sub-elliptical, brownish yellow when fresh, yellowish when 
dry, -0007--0008 inch long.—Parasitic on leaves of Psoralea floribunda, Colorado Ter- 
: seep ae H. Peck. 


DIUM P. Yi. — Spo none; peridia ‘en occupying all the lower surface 
of the ee er i bright-colored, te subentire; gpores. PEES — 
chrome yellow. I Smelowsiia calyci 
Meyer. aae aap Territory.—C. H, PECK. 


Bes REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 
= Revision or THE Ecurni.*— The third part of this elaborate 
work, the first-and second parts of which we noticed in the pre- 
ceding volume of this journal, has appeared — in the same 
beautiful style as the preceding portion. 

The present part contains ahs descriptions of the species of 
‘recent Echini (sea urchins),.with a full discussion of the ordinal 
and subordinal characters. The plates are beautifully executed 
with many details both of the external parts and the internal 
anatomy. 


: *Iitustrated Catalogue f th 
No. vii. Revision ripeka Ar Alexander Agassiz. Part iii with 45 ibea and 
plates i g Part iv. - Cambridge, 1873. ~ 628. 


Royal yoz Dp. ms 


* 


216. _ ‘REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


Haypen’s GEOLOGY or THE TERRITORIES.— The second part of 
our notite of this interesting volume (see p. 726, Yoh vii) has — 


li 
ES 
KAA 


~ 58. 


a VAE Tana || Mh ae 
F Rim about a Geyser- Sau vire Fire Hole Basin. 


been unavoidably crowded out of our pages. We have- aedi) 
— to the wonderful geysers and hot springs of the Yellen 


a Fig. 59. 


Qinhnt ar Sagas paa ess rae a Pat a 
aber of the turban Gey 


-stone region. In Dr. Peale’s report occur ha accompanying 
_ Tnstrations of these phenomena :—Fig. 58 illustrates a rim abou 
Geyser-tube, on the Upper Fire Hole Geyser Basin, due to ms 
akr precipitated from the heated waters; Fig. 59, glo 
' masses in the crater of the Turban Geyser; and Fig. 60- 
he ornamental character of the border of the- springs, while |} 
ôL is a view of the Pk basins of hot sonig at Gardi 
the ellowstone `N. National Park. 


217 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 
In his rather long and interesting report on the lignite coal 
Fig. 60. 


. 


NY php pe 
BSD} 


the borders of the springs. 


bes Sr) od aa, VT 


_ Oblong Geyser near the Giant, Upper Basin, showing the ornamental character of 


4 


zs forward new fatts in regard - f 


š 


E 


qi zs ux 


Bi ated 


e 


218 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


.to the analogy of some vegetable forms of otr Cretaceous sod 
with the plants of our time, and also of the Miocene flora of 
Europe; and he maintains that the whole lignitic coal formation 
of the Rocky Mountains is, ‘‘from the base of the fucoidal sand- 
stone, a-Tertiary-Eocene formation.” Prof. Meek follows witha 


Fig. 61. fe 


_ Basin a Hot Springs a Gardineér’s River, Yellowstone PRSE Park. 


pato on the invertebrates, and Prof. Cope ave on the Eocene 
vertebrate fossils of Wyoming, with several lithograph plates = 
-concluding with some remarks of much interest on the ch 
- of the types of vertebrates, giving phylogenies of the mammalian 
orders and of the genera of the Testudinata. Other papers eee 
sosiaa. si Messrs. Leidy, Thomas, Merriam,’ Horn, Be 


ee ed z% 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 219 


Packard, Coulter, Gannett and Stuart. Dr. Packard describes 
several new species of bird lice, i. e., Menopon picicola (Fig. 62), 
» Goniodes Merriamanus (Fig. 63), @. mephitidis (Fig. 64) from the, 
skunk, Nirmus buteonivorus (Fig. 65) and Docophorus syrnii (Fig. 
66), the latter from New York, with some notes on the common 


Fig. 62. 


Parasite of Dusky Grouse. 


deine of Woodpecker. 


cattle tick of the west and Central America (Fig. 67), Izodés bovis, 
upper figure, natural size, lateral view ; lower, enlarged, with the 
-Mouth-parts (67 a much enlarged). A description is added of the 
_ Texan Argas Americana (Fig. 68, much enlarged), a near ally of 
the well known A — Persicus which is so annoying to travellers. 
in Persia. 


$ . 


22 4 ie = REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. s 


$ 


Parasite of Swain- 
son’s Buzzard. i 


ji i 
Parasite of Barred Owl. : 


(> 


Se a a cl 
ee ak pe d 


REVIEWS AND ‘BOOK NOTICES. 221 


Girarp’s Insects.* —This is a French work modelled after a 
similar plan to Packard’s Guide, but much more pretentious and 
less convenient for daily‘use ; like the latter, it contains special 
reference to injurious insects and will prove of particular value to 
agriculturists. 

`The introductory portion covers two hundred and forty pages 
and is divided into eight sections: i. e., on definitions, on the an- 
atomical and physiological study of the functions; on the nervous 
system ; on instinct and intelligence; the chase and preservation 
of insects ; on paleontology; on geographical distribution; and 
on species and classification. Nearly half of the introduction is 
devoted to the second section (on the functions) which includes 
also much that is of great interest to the general student. We 
naturally look for twenty pages on animal heat, where therréader 
will find the result of Mr. Girard’s researches in very convenient 
form. A long chapter.is devoted to the mode of collecting and 
preserving insects and the introduction is terminated by a list of 
important entomological works. 

n the special part of the work the author defines in general 
language the characteristic features of the larger groups, and 
under each gives brief descriptions of the principal genera ; species . 
are not treated at length unless they are injurious; thus fifteen 
pages are given to the cockchafer. The history and habits of the 
insects are briefly described, so that the work becomes a running 
commentary upon the principal forms of beetles; our own ac- 
quaintance with Coleoptera is insufficient to enable us to judge 
how carefully the later sources of information have been gleaned, 
but there is no reference whatever to LeConte’s views of the po- 
sition and value of the Rhynchophora. 

The plates accompanying the volume, except the first six, which 
are anatomical, are confined to Coleoptera, and with a single ex- 
ception are the same as those published years since in Guérin’s 
by Iconographie du Régne animal,” but a few figures have been re- 
Placed by new illustrations. References to the plates are made 
` throughout-the work, but we miss a connected reference to any but 


$ 
3 Sms - 3 


j é ctes. Traité élé tos Vent g E peces 
utiles et de leurs produits, des è isibles et 1 y de les détruire; Pétude 

` — des mét ph “i kes a I liés de ct td ation; par Mau- 
_ fice Girard, Introduction, Coléoptéres, avec atlas de 60 planches pp. viii, 840. 8vo. 


. 222 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


those which treat of anatomy. There is also no index. These“ 
` defects will doubtless be remedied at the close of the whole work, 
which must continue through several volumes.—S. H. S 


Sorar ‘Puysics.* — Our geological readers will feel an interest 
in a work by one of the pioneers in the new series of researches — 
on the nature of the sun, which have tended to take astronomy 
out of the exact sciences and place it on a rank with its sister 
science, biology. The work is largely an essay on cosmical geol- 
ogy. In many ways it ‘commends itself to the geologist and biol- 
ogist, and is a fresh illustration of the close connection existing 
between the various branches of physical science. It is divided ee 
into two parts: I. A popular account of inquiries into the physical A 
constitution of the sun, with special reference to recent spectro- 
scopic researches ; and II. Communications to the Royal Society i 
of London, and the French Academy of Sciences, with notes. a 

The first part is naturally of more general interest, embracing a 
topics of which the following are some of the subjects: „Whati 
a Sun; The telescopic Appearance of the Sun; The Sun as a 
Type of the material Universe; The Place of life in a ‘Universe 
of Energy; The Atmosphere of the Sun, and several chapters on — 
the Eclipse. The style is clear and interesting, while the spirit of 
the writer is sanguine and bold, such as has marked the editorial — 
éonduct of “ Nature,” in which Journal some of these essays gee 
appeared. | 

Certainly the author has reason to thank his publishers for the 
sumptuous appearance of the volume, taking. rank as it does with 
the most beautiful works of a similar nature that have appe 
recently in England and'France. All devout astronomers’should, 
as becoming their profession, thank heaven for the appearance of : 

so fair and enticing a work, which will win its way to the warm 
. appreciation of many a non-astronomical reader. - 


Tue BIRTH or Curmistry.t—This little book is a reprint of = 
interesting series of papers which have appeared in eae Re 
It is a résumé of the earlier history of chemistry, re 
became a science, from the times of the early Greek p. losophy 

ee to Bolar ‘Physics. _ By J. Norman nae tae London, soem 28 
Co. 184. Svo. pp. 676. oodeuts. $10.00. 


t The a Chemistry. By G.F. Rodwell. With pamass ication, Nature 
~ Series. London, Macmillan and ee 12mo., pp. 185. $1.25. | 


BOTANY. 223 


down to that of the fathers of modern chemistry, Lavoisier, 
Priestley and others, but not including their works. Those who 
know nothing of chemistry will find this account entertaining. 
The illustrations will add to its interest. 


Nortn American Morus.*—The 8th and 9th parts of Mr. 
Stretch’s interesting illustrations, completing vol. i, have appeared 
with three plates, the last of larvae, some of them’ only tolerably 
well drawn, but of great interest.” Though the work is partly a 

~ compilation, yet mnch original matter is incorporated, and it is 
the only manual we have of the most. interesting portion of our. 
moth-fauna. Several new species, western and Pacific, are de- 
scribed and figured. 


BOTANY... 


INVESTIGATIONS RESPECTING THE FERTILIZATION OF ABUTILON.— 
The complete sterility of certain plants with pollen from the same 


flower (Corydalis cava), or even from all flowers from the same , 


stock (species of Abutilon, Bignonia, Oncidium, ete.), is only a re- 
markable case under the law that self- fertilization gives rise to 
weaker ‚descendants than crossing. And, further, this law, of 
which a proof is afforded by every flower which, through the at- 
traction of odor or color, invites bees or butterflies to the enjoy- 
ment of honey, and thereby to the accomplishment of crossing, 
is only a particular case under the more general law, viz ;— that 
close breeding in-and-in between near relations is productive of 
_ Mischief; for speaking of individual cases, anthers and pistil of 
the same individual plant, er the same flower, are the closest con- 
ceivable relatives. 

A still more general scope can be given to the last law if we 
comprise i in it, also, the diminution of fertility, which, in all degrees 
even to complete sterility, occurs as a consequence of close rela- 
tionship of the plants crossed, and in the union of hybrids. Every 
plant, so to speak, requires for the production of the strongest pos- 
sible and most prolific progeny, a certain amount of difference be- 
_ tween male and female procreative elements which unite. Fertility 
is diminished as well when this degree i is too low (in relatives too 


re * Illustrations of the Zygenide and Bombycide of North America. By R. D. 
y Stretch. Vol. A, parts: 8 and che sore last). San Francisco, Cal., — 8vo., pp. 185-242. 


-~ 


“ 


24. BOTANY. 


closely allied), as when itis too high (in those too little related). 

The complete accord between ‘‘illegitimate” descendants of di- 5 
morphous and trimorphous plants on the one side, and. hy brids of > 
different species on the other side, authorizes in fact such a group-'. a 
ing together under a common point of view of kinds of infertility 
occasioned by opposite causes. It is self-evident that the fact cen 
be merely expressed, but not explained. Likewise, naturally, only 
one of the many relations conditioning the greater or less fertility 
of a union can be expressed. i 

In a species the greater the difference of sexual elemi requi- ae 
site to the attainment of the highest degree of fertility, the greater 
will be, in general (ceteris paribus), the difference between the — a 
plants which can produce offspring with each other. In other, > 
words, species which, with pollen of the same stock, are wholly ~ 2 
sterile, and even with pollen of nearly allied stocks are more or 
less infertile, will generally be fertilized very readily by the pollen a 
of another species. The self-sterile species of the genus Abutilon, i 
which are, on the other hand, so much inclined to hybridization, - 
afford a good example ọf this theory, which appears to be con- z 
firmed, also by Lobelia, Passiflora and Oncidium oe 

I will not further present these general sbnerentiealt: “They : 
merely indicate in what sense, and in what connection I have wished : 
` to look upon the following example of infertility between en ae 
lations. , 

In the following A. C. E. F. M. P. denote six indigenous spe- 
Ges of Abutilon. >.: ', For indicating the simple hybrids the i 
letters of the united species are placed in juxtapositon withouy 
other signs, and the maternal species first. Thus EF 
a hybrid whose mother is Æ and whose father is F. In the - 
of union of these simple hybrids among themselves or with eH 
species, a point is placed between the aymbel of the mother, ae 
that of the father following; F. CF had, consequently, F for the 
mother, CF for the father; CH. S had CE for the mother 2 and 8 a 
for the father. Numbers placed under and at the right of the 
~ ters denote the individual ‘stocks of a species or a hybri 

A FS, FS, are, for example, three different stocks of the hybr m 
The four’ plants EF. F,, EF. F,, F. EF,, F. EF, are ben 
and sisters, having had the same parents F, and BPs S 
-Nine flowers of F. EF, dusted with pollen of other fow wers 
i eet fee wangle tt i 


tes sae 


es 


So ee aes 


BOTANY. 225 


Twenty flowers of F. EF, dusted with pollen of ¥. EF, EF. 
F, and EF. F, produced three fruits eS an average of 1°3 seeds. 


— EN 
EFF, EEF. FEF, ‘= REF 
On the other hand there were the following results with 


10 Flowers E EF impregnated bee Po and FE, es fruits 4 n 5 
11 EF; 1 4°6 


10 (23 «é F m 4.6 
Hoi “ e F. CF, and F. oms A5 
1 z & s6 FS, I “g 


The results following the dusting of the brothers and sisters 
were not owing to the bad behavior of the pollen since on other - 
plants it was completely potent; the pollen or F. EF, produced 
fruit rich in seeds in the plants FS, that of EF. F, on FE, that 
of EF. F, on F. Also the pollen of F. EF,, produced numerous 
seeds which so far as sown appear capable of germinating, from 
the plants F. F. OF,, F6, and FS,. 

The seeds produced by F. EF, and F. EF have, moreover, ger- 
minated and given strong plants which, up to this time; have kept 
pace in growth with those from EF,, F, F. CF,, and FS.. 

The foregoing examples, show that in hybrids of Abutilon, and 
probably so in pure species of the genns, there are many cases of 
more or less complete infertility between nearly related plant- 


. stocks, between parents and children, between brothers and sisters 


and even half brothers and sisters. If. the foregoing exposition — 
of the connection between relationship and fertility is correct, we 


eee May hope to indicate in other plants similar instances of dimin- 
_. ished fertility through too near raf but we may expect to 
VOL. VII 


AMER, P cesar OT 


226 ZOOLOGY. 


— From the German of Fitz Müller, Itajhy, Oct., 1872." G. L. G 


“be seen by the following correspondence, that we were in pae 
in saying that the first letter of Mr. Murray on this subject wae 


written to Prof. Marcou. We make reparation for the ae 
tency by publishing the following letters from Prof. Agassit; 
-which copies have been furnished us by Prof. Marcou. They 


_ find complete sterility between relations in those species only which 


like Abutilon are infertile with pollen of the same stock. .... 
Darwin, with his accustomed keenness of vision, has expressed* 
the conjecture that this diminution of fertility, observed go, many 
times, is not a consequence of their hybrid nature, but of too close © 
breeding in-and-in, and I am glad to be able to offer, in the exam- | 
ples of diminished fertility and complete sterility as a consequence | 
of too close breeding in-and-in, in Abutilon-hybrids, herewith com- 
municated, a new proof of the accuracy of Darwin’s hypothesis. 


Tue Fertiiization or Gentians sy Humsre Bees. t —The 
fringed gentian (Gentiana crinita) resembles the above in having 
erect flowers and thé.stamens below the stigmas. The fringed 
lobes of the cordlla spread at right angles. Humble bees work 
upon this very much as they do upon Andrews’ gentian. ; 

There seems to be almost no end to the various contrivances by 
which flowers are fertilized by insects. Flowers closely allied, of — 
the same genus, are fertilized in different ways, so it is not safe to 
make general rules. We may think that insects will act-in a cer- 
tain way, according to our notion, but after carefully watching 
them, we shall often see that they are not doing as we supposed 
they would. We need many patient observers for many years y et, 
to repeat observations made on this subject and to make new ones; 
we want to know how our insects behave upon every species E 
flower from the time they first visit it, to, the time it affords no — 
nectar to attract them.—W. G. Bea, State Agricultural College, 
Lansing, Michigan, Nov. 8, 1873. 


<ooLoar. o ae 
as will 


Gigantic CUTTLE-FISHES OF NEwFOUNDLAND.— It seems, 


dressed to the late Prof. Agassiz (p. 120). It was im 


* Orig. Sp., 4th ed., 295. 


ZOOLOGY. 227 


interesting as being the last scientific letters written by their 
lamented author : — 
Tron OF ae i re ž 
na, 


Dea ar Sir :—M friend Mare O6u has ‘somnntintoated to me 


toppidan. I will now hunt up everything that is worth noticing 
upon the subject, and if you-will allow me an examination of your 
specimen, the zoological characters of the creature might be made 
out from the parts preserved, as we do of imperfect fossil remains. 
I would also-ask leave to publish the substance of your letter to 
Mr. Marcou, in connection with this. With great regard, kings 
very truly, signed 
ALEX. Murray, Esq., St. John, Newfoundland. 


MUSEUM or COMPARATIVE ZooLoGY, 
Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 26, 1873. i 

My Dear Marcou: a for the letter and the photograph 
that Mr. Murray has sent t is very curious, and with your 
permission, I shall publish fo contents accompanied with remarks 
if Mr. Murray should send me one of the large suckers in order 
to compare it with those of the species of cephalo pods known on 
our coast. Ihave written him to this end. I have made a copy 
of Mr. Murray’s letter, and return you tlie original. The more I 
consider this discovery, the more does it interest me. It is truly 
important for the history of cephalopods. Ever yours, 
(Signed) L. ea 

Prof. Jutes Marcov. - 


‘Laws or ĢQEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN Norra AMERICAN 
Maumars anD Brrps.— My attention of late having been again 
especially directed to this subject, I wish to say a word respecting 
a discussion that occurred concerning it in the NATURALIST some 


_ months since, during my somewhat protracted absence in the 


west; particularly in respect to Mr. Ridgway’s article in the Sep- 


' tember number (vol. vii, pp. 548-535). With all due deference to 


the important contributions Professor Baird has made towards our 


-present knowledge of this subject, I think Mr. Ridgway has hardly 


fairly represented the case. After stating what he claims as Pro- ` 
fessor Baird’s generalizations, four in number (see Mr. Ridgway’s : 
article), he says: “Here then are three laws of climatic or re- 


‘ gional variation in size and proportions, and'two of color, in which 
Mr. Allen i is anticipated by Professor Baird.” 


f 


- the southward included not only those instances noticed by Pro- 


. tints on the Pacific coast north of latitude 40°, and light colors 


these general facts with the relative amount of aqueous prec! 


228 ZOOLOGY. 


Generalization “1” of Mr. Ridgway’s enumeration refers to 
variation in size with locality, and is a law which was most 
uneqtivocably established by Professor Baird. Generalization 
“2” refers to the enlargement of the Dill in Florida and cape St. 
Lucas birds, while generalization “3” refers to the ‘longer tails 
of western birds than of eastern examples of the same spe- 
cies.” Generalization “4” refers to color, and will be presently 
noticed more in detail. In respect to generalizations “2” and 
“3? Professor Baird only refers to the disproportionate enlarge- 
ment of the bill and tail at certain localities, as noteworthy facts, — 
and, so far from explicitly stating them as general laws, he says 
in a foot-note, referring to the increased size of the bill, ‘This dis- * : 
proportionate difference of size at cape St. Lucas and south Florida 
is probably connected with the limited range of the species in those 
regions, which have thus an insular rather than continental relation- 
ship ;”* thus apparently looking upon these variations as local 
phenomena. Neither in the case of the enlarged bills, nor the 
lengthened tail, does he hint at any general geographical law of 
variation of which these are simply the expressions, whereas my ee 
announcement of the law of the enlargement of peripheral parts 0 ; 


fessor Baird, but a multitude of others I had myself observed, both 
among mammals and birds, and at numerous localities in addition 
to Florida and lower California. In respect to the tail it was Im- 
creased in length at the southward—not at the westward— in 
accordance with the above law to which I called attention. i 
As regards laws of color variation, Professor Baird -merel 
makes the general statement that “specimens from the Pacific 
coast are.apt to be darker in color than those from the interior, the 
latter frequently exhibiting a bleached or weatherbeaten appear- 
ance, possibly the result of greater exposure to the elements and 
less protection by dense forests,” whilst I announced a regton. of 
more rufous tints in the middle portions of the continent, darker 


from the arid plains and deserts, as well as the law of increased 


intensity of color to the southward; at the same time cnr - 


* Amer. Jour. Sci. and Arts, 2d series, vol. xli, p. 191. 
į Amer. Jour. Sci. and Arts, 2d series, Vol. xli, p. 192. 


ZOOLOGY. 229 


tion and the hyg mii conditions of the atmosphere over these 
different areas of the continent. 

The statement Mr. Ridgway makes, notwithstanding the gener- 
ally complimentary tone of the article as regards the present writer, 
that all the laws I announced (with one exception) “are substan- 
tially the same as the generalizations made by Professor Baird 
in 1866,” seems to me to be by no means wholly warranted. Being 
forced to refer to the matter, I may as well state here that I claim 
the three following general laws as original: viz: 1, increase of 
intensity of color southward; 2, greater depth of color with in- 
creased atmospheric humidity ; 3, enlargement of peripheral parts 
to the southward. These, with the fourth law relating to size, 
cover, in a general way, geographical variation in proportion, size 
and color. Baird’s law of size and his facts of variation in re- 
spect to the proportional development of parts, taken with similar 
ones I had myself observed, were of course incentives to further 
research, and suggestive of the probable existence of some gen- 
eral laws of geographical variation of which these facts were the 
expressions. —J. A. ALLEN. 


Tue Hasrrs or POLISTES AND PELOP&US. —My friend, Mr. Uhler, 
will pardon my incredulity ; but the conviction forced itself on my 
mind, in reading the interesting paper on pp. 678-9, vol. vii, that 
some one had sadly confounded the two genera above mentioned. 

First, the description of the mud cells exactly applies to those 
of our common Pelopeus lunatus Fabr., as do, also, the descrip- 
tions of the method of building, and of storing them with young 
Spiders. The actual cells, whicl#I saw at Portland, would be at 
once recognized as belonging to this species by those familiar with 
its habits—the unusual length,of some of them resulting from the 
nature of the beetle burrow or cavity in which they were built. 
‘Secondly, the habit which Mr. Uhler deems exceptional, or not 
belonging to Pelopæus, viz., that of not nursing its young and of 
sealing up the cell when once stored is precisely the habit which 
does belong to Pelopæus and which does not belong to Polistes. 
Mr. F. Smith has recorded facts which would indicate that some 
of the digger wasp such as Mellinus, may open their burrows 
from‘time to time to supply fresh food to their young ;* but we 
have yet no positive proof of the fact, and I know of nothing on 


* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., May, 1869. 
ie a : 


- small caterpillars, small moths, etc., and the motlier always rejects : : : 


a 


' not been appropriated, is sufficient proof, if proof were wanting, 


. it without better evidence. Larrada and Sphex, which generally — 


_ thus diverge in habit also diverge in structure from t 


ground, Mr. Smith has shown that one species (A. variegata) 


230 < _ ZOOLOGY. 


record to indicate that any other digger wasp does so. The fact 
that_old mud dabs are often found, in which the wasp egg had 
failed to hatch, and in which the spider food, in consequence, had 


that Pelopzeus never does so. i a; i 

The habits of Polistes, as I think. every one who has observed 
them must admit, are absolutely incompatible with Mr. Uhler’s 
conclusions. They have recently been most admirably set forth 
by Siebold in his last work on Parthenogenesis.* 

A large weather-worn impregnated female or queen founds the 
colony in spring, by the construction of a peduncled, gray, paper- 
like cell, at the bottom of. which an egg is deposited. The cell is — 
enlarged as fast as the larva increases in size, and other cells are, 
meanwhile, built adjoining the central one. The young are — 
always fed with the masticated flesh of other insects, such as 


the food found in the stomachs of these herbivorous species. The | 
cells are never closed until the full grown larva closes them. The. 
first generation consists of females only ; or, more properly, female 
workers differing from the workers of Apis in being always fertile, 
but, from necessity, parthenogetically so. They have precisely 
the same structure as the queen, but are distinguished by their 
smaller size and brighter color, especially of the wings. By ther 
aid the nests increase in size, or new nests are built, and in the » i 
fall of the year the larger females and the males appear- Oces- 
sionally honey is found in the cells, but its use is not fully under- 

st cin 


Now have we a species so divergent from this habit as to hor : 
the very different habit of Pelopæus? For my own part I have | 


too much faith in the unity of habit in the same genus to believe © 


burrow in the ground, present exceptional species which a 2 
nests above ground in the curl of a leaf,t but the species wbich 
he typical 
genus. Again in Agenia which generally builds mud cells above 
burrows in the ground. Yet these exceptional differences in 
habit of the same genus do not begin to compare with be 


* Beiträge zur Parthenogenesis der Arthropoden, 1871. 


.a : tPackard’s “ Guide,” pp. 165 and 169 


ZOOLOGY. 931 


between the habit of Pelopseus and Polistes : : and if Mr. Uhler’s 
observation is a correct one, it is 4 most remarkable entomological 
discovery. 

The Polistes which Mr. Uhler exhibited at Portland is a quite 
common species (or perhaps, more correctly speaking, variety), 


marked in my cabinet P. fuscatus Fabr., and which I know to 


build paper-like nests, according to the habit of the genus. In 
winter collecting I constantly meet with it and other species hiber- 
nating in old hollow logs and stumps, and I cannot help thinking 
that Mr. ‘Bryan, finding it in the same log with his mud cells, 


- jumped to the conclusion that it was the architect of those cells; 


and that its yellow marked body and legs prevented his distin- 
guishing it from Pelopeus lunatus which he afterwards observed 
building mud cells. At all events, I hope Mr. Uhler will tell us 
whether or not he himself observed any of the habits described, 
and will give us that confirmation, of so anomalous a fact, which 
will prevent all incredulity about it in the future, and which the 
article in question fails to give. —C. V. Ritey, Dec. 3, 1873. 


Nores ON THE PLANT Licr.—That aphides, in the spring of the 
year, are “ developed into wingless forms from ova which were 
deposited at the close of the preceding autumn, and which have 
remained dormant during the famine winter months, I believe was 
the theory of naturalists till the year 1852. At this time Prof. 
Owen, in his famous Hunterian lecture on the generation of 


insects, claimed the reproduction of winged individuals to be- 


an occasional occurrence, and also the exceptional mode. 

My observations during the past season have been of such a 
character as to indicate that the professor is not wholly correct. 
From the first appearance of plant lice down to within a compar- 
atively recent date, numberless winged individuals of Aphis rose, 


: mali, etc., have been noticed, associated with clusters of the apte- 


rous ka but more usually single or in pairs, upon their favorite 


. 


_ Plants, at such distances from well-established colonies as to give ` 


warrant to. the belief that wings were solely acquired for the 


_ purpose of diffusing the species. 


In some carefully conducted experiments which T have made, 


_ Some of these winged forms proved quite as prolific as the wing- 


less ; while others, apparently of the same age, manifested indica- 


tions of sterility, from which latter fact it seems just to conclude 


that these were sterile females. 


> 


_ sity of wings, and generally upon the very stalks where the insects 


a 


portions of the same field of view were many in the act of copu- — a 


undeveloped females. Upon any other occasion than the presen 
` I should assuredly have characterized them as females W 


232 : “ZOOLOGY. 
. 


- Further, it has been strongly affirmed by those who have made 
this peculiar group their study down to the aforementioned date, 
that procreation from a virgin mother continues until the eleventh 
generation is exhausted; and that when this period has been 
reached, winged individuals of both species make their appear- 
ance, which, after having celebrated their nuptials in mid-air, re-. 
pair to some suitable plant where the females deposit their ova 
for the continuation of -the species, after which they both die. 
Prof. Owen, in his writings, says ‘ When this exhaustion occurs, 
some members of the last larval’ brood are metamorphosed into 
winged males, others into oviparous females,” the latter being 
apterous. That such is only partially true I am satisfied from 
observations made during the latter part of October upon the 4. 
mali of Harris 


This species, from its convenience, has received very careful at- 
tention. On the 26th of October last, while engaged in an exami- 
nation of some of the principal shoots of a Spiræa corymbosa, 
which seem to be particularly adapted to the growth and well 
being of the above species, I observed hundreds of wingless 
females engaged in oviposition. Directing my glass.to the leaves, 
where scores were still deriving a scanty and precarious subsis- 
tence, I noticed many smaller specimens which presented quite X 
contrast as regards size when placed by the side of their plump 
associates. The former, from the endearment which they lavished — a 
upon the latter, I soon satisfied myself were males. Upon 0 ae 


= 


ting. One particular phase of animal life very forcibly im- a 
pressed my mind on this occasion ; to wit, the ardent temperament a 
of the males, and the comparative únconcern of the females pre- 
vious to coition. a: a 
_ Long and anxious watching has convinced me that in the f a 
of the year not å single winged individual of either sex is # w : 
found in this species, and further that the essential duties oo oi 
reproduction and of oviposition are performed without the neces- 


were born and lived. i : 
In size, the males of A. mali are vastly inferior to the fem a: 
being less than one-half the latter. Externally they appea = < 


ich & 
healthy, vigorous nutrition would have pushed unto perfecti 


t 


ZOOLOGY. 233 


That they are males has been conclusively shown. But what has 
wrought the change? I think it can be shown that lack of nutri- 
‘tion, in consequence of a diminished supply of sap to the leaves, 
has: been the instrument at work. If continuance of warmth and 


consequent plant-vitality are conditions favorable to an almost 


endless succession of the female type, a reverse order of things, by 
acting in a sudden manner, and at a certain stage of female life, 
producing a check to further development, must assuredly gener- 
ate the opposite sex.—T. G. GENTRY. 


A STRAGGLER IN THE On10.—On a recent visit to the Museum 
of Comparative Zoology my attention was called by Mr Bliss to a 
small fish labelled in my own handwriting several years since as 
follows: A singular jish of a rare genus, Louisville, Ky., 1837 
Nothing further is known as to the history of the specimen, but 
as 1837 was some ten years before Professor Agassiz began to 
form the unrivalled collection of fishes to which this specimen 
- belongs, it is very probable that the label was a copy of some older 
one on the bottle in which the fish was received at the Museum, 
simply rewritten by myself sometime between 1856 and 1864. 
On making a careful examination of the fish it proved to be the 
Gobiosoma molestum of Girard, who described the species from a 
specimen obtained by Mr. J. H. Clark at Indianola, on the coast 
of Texas. Girard’s description, with a figure, is in the Mexican 
Boundary Survey (Ichthyology, p. 27, pl. 12, fig. 14), 1859. 
Girard also describes the genus and species in the “Proceedings of 
the Philadelphia Academy,” 1858, p. 169. The description by Girard 
applies perfectly to the Louisville fish and his figure is nearly cor- 
rect. Inote the following slight differences. Girard’s specimen was 
two inches in total length, the Louisville specimen is two and one- 
half inches ; Girard gives the fin rays as follows; dorsal vir+-12, 
anal 11, ventral 5, pectoral 16, caudal 20. My count of the 
Louisville specimen is, dorsal vi1-+12, anal 12, ventral 1+-5, 


pectoral 18 or 20, caudal 20; so that there is no important va- . 


tiation, Ventral 5, as given by Girard is probably a mistake due 


_ to his overlooking the small ventral spine which is common to 


nearly all members of the family. The proportions of the two 
fishes are the same. Girard’s figure represents the rays of the first 
~ dorsal a little too far apart and the last rays are too short, as there 

_ ks but little, difference in the length of the rays of this fin. The 


—F. W. PUTNAM. : 


Se 


 * ASSEMBLING” amon Morus.—I send you the following 


like seven or eight years ago I was engaged in mak 


_ ber of cocoons of the Attacus Promethea moth (Harris) W3 


234 ZOOLOGY. 


rays of the dorsal are also slightly too long in proportion to the 
size of the fish figured, and the pectoral fin is also a little too long. 
The anal fin should be about one ray nearer the caudal. In the ` 
Louisville specimen the two dorsals are slightly connected at the 
base by a low membrane. This specimen has been so long in 
spirits that no markings of color can be traced, but the membrane 
of the fins shows dark shadings made up of small dark points. 
Taking it for granted that the label is correct, this little fish 
must have made the perilous passage up the Mississippi river into 


the Ohio river, a journey north of about eight degrees of lati- 


tude and of many hundred miles distance. That it is not impos- 
sible for the fish to have made such a journey from salt to fresh 
water, we have the knowledge expressed by Dr. Günther as fol- 
lows :—“ This family [Gobiide] offers numerous instances of the 
fact, that a part of the individuals of one and the same species 
are entirely confined to fresh waters, whilst others live in the sea.” 
Independently of the interest given by the very probably correct 
label locating the place of capture as the Ohio river, the exami- 
nation of the fish has proved that Girard’s species is a valid one and 
distinct from the Gobiosoma alepidotum of our eastern Atlantic 
coast. This last is a more slender fish and differs in several other 
particulars. Should any of our readers have the opportunity of col- - 
lecting the small fishes of the rivers flowing into the gulf of Mex- 
ico it would be well to be on the lookout for other specimens of 
the Gobiosoma molestum, which can be easily distinguished from 


r 


account of some of my observations, which you are at liberty t 
publish if you think it of any interest to your readers. Something eo 
lection of insects and during the winter had collected sn p 


>A 


ZOOLOGY. | 235 


were placed for safe keeping in the furnace room of a small green- 
house, the doors and windows of which were kept closed to prevent 
the escape of the insects. One afternoon in the month of June, 1 
observed a strange insect fluttering about the greenhouse, which 
it soon entered through a ventilator, where I captured it, and 
found it to be a male of the above mentioned species, an insect 
which, until then, I had never seen. During the afternoon, when 
upon another part of the farm, 1 saw another specimen, also a 
male, flying high and directing his course straight for the green- 
house. I was struck with the coincidence of seeing two of these 
insects in the same afternoon, but was fairly astonished upon en- 
_ tering the greenhouse in the evening to find some half a dozen of 
them, all males, sitting about upon various parts of the building, and 
apparently patiently waiting. They were all immediately killed 
and pinned. The next morning, when I entered the furnace room, 
I found that during the night one of my cocoons had produced a 
splendid female moth. Did those males come upon an errand of 
love? If so, by what sense were they guided to the right spot, a 
place entirely unlike the natural haunts of the insect? 
During the past winter in riding about the country I collected 
Several cocoons of this moth for the benefit of a young naturalist 
friend of mine, but retained one, which I hung upon the wall of 
my Office. í 
On the morning of June 21st, a fine female moth came out and 
was the object of considerable interest to the occupants of the 
room. During the day I related the’ above incident to a gentle- 
man and at the same time described the appearance of the male 
insect. I had occasion to be absent from the room a short time 
during the afternoon, and upon my return was told that a male 
= moth had been there and fluttered in and out at the open window 
= Several times, but had finally disappeared. The next day was 
Sunday and the office was closed, but on Monday afternoon a 
“Tale again made his appearance at the office window, came in, 
and after fluttering about the room for a space of ten or fifteen 
Minutes, found the object of his search, and the connection was 
Consummated before our very eyes. Let it be remembered that the 
Office is situated upon the principal business street, in the centre 
of the city, and from half a mile to a mile from any place where 
Such an insect would naturally be found. A friend who has a 
Store some half a mile from my office upon the same street, has 


236 ZOOLOGY. 


had an experience of the same kind. A cocoon which hung in 
her store produced a female moth, and within the next two days 
her store was visited by half a dozen of the male insects. Can 
‘any one tell me what fine sense this may be which guides this - 
insect so far, and into such strange places in search of his waiting 
mate?—F. E. L. Brat, Fitchburg, Mass., July 7, 1873. 

[We print the above as fair examples of “assembling” among — 
moths. Nearly every entomologist has had similar experiences. 
It is a common occurrence. We are disposed to think that the 
male is guided by the sense of smell, as the antennz of the silk- 
moths probably possess this as well as the sense of hearing— — 

ITORS. | a 


ORGANS OF Hearing 1N Insects.—At, the last meeting of the 
National Academy of Sciences, Professor A. M. Mayer exhibited 
experimental confirmation of the theorem of Fourier as applied by. 
him in his propositions relating to the nature of a simple sound, 
and to the analysis by the ear of a cornposite sound into its ele- 
mentary pendulum-vibrations ; and to show experiments elucidating 
the hypothesis of audition of Helmholtz. Placing a male mosquito 
under the microscope, and sounding various notes of tuning-forks 
in the range of a sound given by the female mosquito, the various — 
fibres of the antennz of the male mosquito, vibrated sympathet- i 
ically to these sounds. The longest fibres vibrated sympathetically 
to the grave notes, and the short fibres vibrated sympathetically to 
the higher notes. The fact that the nocturnal insects have highy 
organized antennze, while the diurnal ones have not; and also the 
fact that the anatomy of these parts of insects shows à highly ah 
veloped nervous organization, lead to the highly probable inference 
that Prof. Mayer has here given facts which form the first sure base 
of reasoning in reference to the nature of thé auditory apparatus © 
insects. oo 

These experiments were also extended in a direction whieh 
added new facts to the physiology of the senses. If a sonor n 
impulse strike a fibre so that the direction of the impulse is mt 
direction of the fibre, then the fibre remains stationary. But 

the direction of the sound is at right angles to the fibre, the SP 
. Vibrates with its maximum intensity. Thus, when a sound 5e 

the fibrils of an insect, those on one antenna are vibrated ‘ 
powerfully than the fibrils on the other, and the insect nasii 


ZOOLOGY. 237 


_ turns in the direction of that antenna which is most strongly 
shaken, The fibrils on the other antenna are now shaken with 
more and more intensity, until, haying turned his body so that both 
antenne vibrate with equal intensity, he has placed the axis of his 
body in the direction of the sound. Experiments under the micro- 
scope show that the mosquito can thus detect to within five degrees 
the position of the sonorous centre. To render assurance doubly 
sure, Prof. Mayer, having found two fibrils of the antenn of a 
mosquito which vibrated powerfully to two different notes, measured 
these fibrils very accurately under the microscope. He then con- 
structed some fibrils out of pine wood, which, though two or three. 
feet long and of the thickness of small picture-cord, had exactly 
the same proportion of length to thickness as the fibrils of the an- 
tenn of the mosquito. He found that these slender pine rods or 

-fibrils had to each other the same ratio of vibration as the fibrils of 
the mosquito. 
> 


CHANGE or HABIT.—A]l who have travelled of late years on the 
St. John’s River, in East Florida, must have noticed the cows 
Standing for hours at considerable distances from the shore, 
thrusting their heads from time to time into the water. This 
_ is explained by a change of habit to which they have been driven, 
during the winter months, by a scarcity of suitable grazing on 
land. Grazing is never very. good there at any time and compels 
them to feed on moss, young palmetto leaves, shoots of shrubs, 
ete., which under ordinary circumstances they would reject. The 
“river grass,” which appears to be a-species of Valisneria, has 
become a new and very considerable resource for food. It is said 
that this plant has established itself, within a few years, in the shoal 
waters of the lower part of the St. John’s where it now covers large 
_ Submerged tracts, and it is to obtain this that the cows have taken. 
to their semizaquatic habits. We have frequently watched them 
and have found that while gathering food, the head was kept be- 
neath the surface for a period varying from fifteen to thirty-five 
Seconds, during which time respiration was of course averted. We 
have recently seen a colt feeding in a similar manner. The hogs 
have also taken up this habit, but hold their heads under the 
water for a-shorter time than the cows. The young calves, though 
they do not eat the “ grass,” follow the cows and may sometimes 
YMAN. 


be seen with their heads only out of wáter.—I. J. W 


$ 


~ all over with dots and specks, and some obscure Zi 


beautiful rosy tint: but the ground color is lustrous white, 


238 ZOOLOGY. ` i 


SPONTANEOUS GeEneration.— Mr. E. Ray Lankester, after re- 
viewing in “Nature” the results of recent work done in devel- 
oping Bacteria, etc. in infusions, concludes that ‘ archebiosis” of 
‘“‘abiogenesis” is ‘not in any way rendered more probable than it 
was. before ‘by Dr. Bastian’s experiments with organic infusions. 
Prof. Smith and Mr. Archer, of Dublin, eminent authorities in 
the study of the lower alge, have criticised in detail and sug- 
gested explanations of some of the statements in the third part 


` of ‘The Beginnings of Life,’ viz., statements relating to the trans- 


formation of various species of organisms into each other. They | 
show (the reader may consult Prof. Smith’s paper in the October — 
number of the ‘Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science,’ : 
1873), that the asserted ‘facts’ of transmutation are not facts. 
It is abundantly demonstrated that the fundamental observations — 
recorded by Dr. Bastian are erroneous, and that he has been mis- F 


DISCOVERY or THe Water Tarusn’s Nest 1x New ENGLAND. — 
— Among the trophies taken during a late collecting excursion — 
in the western part of the state of Connecticut are the nest and : 
four eggs of the long-billed water thrush (Seiurus Ludowe 
anus), discovered in June, 1873, at Franklin Station, New 
don county. ee 

The nest was sunk behind a cushion of moss, and into the rot- 
ten wood among the roots of a great tree growing out of the 
(of the Yantic river) in such a manner that it was comple 
covered over, except just in front, by the roots of the tree. 
nest itself-was two and one-half inches in internal diameter, 
rather shallow. It was rather loosely and carelessly const 
of fine grass and some little dead, fibrous moss: but Dene 
a few, and about the outside, particularly in front, many 
leaves were put, as a sort of breastavork to decrease the size : 
entrance and more thoroughly conceal the sitting bird. It 
underneath the edge of a perpendicular bank eight or ten 
„from the water, ee 

The eggs were four in number, and fresh, though the 
sitting upon them at 2 p.m. Before being blown they wel 


‘the egg a polished look. They are more or less profusely 


z ; ZOOLOGY. 239 


two tints of reddish brown, with numerous faint points and 
touches of lilac and very pale underlying red. These marks are 
much more thickly disposed at the greater end where they form 
quite large blotches, but there is little indication of aring. The 
eggs differ from those of S. aurocapillus in being more round 
and polished, and the spots generally larger and more distinct. 
ne, however, is much paler than the other three. They measure 
"80 X-60; 80°60; "79 X61, and -75X°62 of an inch. 

The female was shot after giving me a good opportunity to 
observe her behavior, when she thought herself entirely alone. 
She kept close to the water, but occasionally flew upon low twigs, 
alighting ina careful balancing attitude as though it were a great 
effort to hold on, and keeping up a coquettish flirting of her tail 
and queer, comical movements of her head. When frightened 
from the nest she uttered a few distinct chirrups but afterwards 
kept silent.— ERNEST INGERSOLL, Cambridge, Mass. 


Two Rare OWLS rrom ARIZONA. — Charles Bendire, U. S. A 
well known as an‘ enthusiastic and energetic ornithologist through 
his various communications to the Narvurauist, has lately sent me 
a specimen each of two rare species of owls, from the vicinity of 
‘Tucson, Arizona. Of Syrnium occidentale, Captain Bendire’s 
Specimen is the second ever obtained, the first having been pro- 
cured by Mr. Xantus at Ft. Tejon, southern California, in 1859. 
The specimen collected by Captain Bendire is an adult female, 
collected Noy. 7, 1872. The manuscript notes on the label are 

-as follows: — “Length, 17-25; extent, 42°25; bill, pale yellow; 
eyes, blue-black.” : 

The specimen of Micrathene Whitney? is the fourth ever obtained, 
the type being from Ft. Mojave, California, and the other two from 
Socorro Island, off the western coast of Mexico, in latitude 18° . 

89’. The latter were collected by the late Col. A. J. Grayson, and 

the former by Dr. Cooper. ) Captain Bendire’s specimen, which is 

-~ adult in fine plumage, was shot April 20, 1872, on the Rillito 
__ teek, There are no measurements or other notes accompanyin 


H: Accompanying these specimens is an adult male of Asturina 
nitida, var. plagiata, shot on the Rillito creek, May 30, 1872. 
This specimeń possesses peculiar interest from the fact of being 
 _ the first Specimen received at the National Museum from any por- 
tion of the United States, though its occurrence within our limits 


240 ZOOLOGY. 


was previously noted, upon the strength of a specimen observed 
by me in August, 1871, in Richland Co., Illinois (see AMERICAN 
Narvraist, vii, April, 1873).— Roserr RIDGWAY. 


Avirauna of Cotorapo anb Wyom1nc.—Our genial critic 
(Amer. Nar., vii, 631) unintentionally misconstrues the sentence i 
of ours which he selects as a point of attack. We said, in illus- 
tration of a stricture we passed upon the paper he edited, that 
“such birds as Geococeyx Californianus and Pipilo mesoleucus find — 
themselves in ornithological company they never saw outside ofa 
book.” Dr. Brewer makes us out to mean by this, that these two 
birds are not found together except on his list, and then proceeds 
to rebuke our supposed ignorance in a kindly and cogent way. 
But we lived a long while where these two species occur together, 
and were perfectly aware of such occurrences ; what we meant was, 
that these were two birds which.were placed on the list among 
certain other species with which they were not elsewhere found — 
` associated; thereby demonstrating the point of our objection, — 
namely, the incongruity of the Holden-Aiken list as edited by 
Dr. Brewer. Thus our criticism remains in force, while the point = 
of Dr. Brewer’s reply disappears. — ELLIOTT COTES., a 


Tue Oxtve-siwep Frycatcner.—Mr. Merriam (in your Des 
No.) forgets that this bird was first noticed by Mr. John Bethune, 
at Mt. Auburn, near Cambridge, Mass. The first specimen 
that Audubon ever saw was shot by him in company with 
in this town (Brookline) about 18385, A year or two later I found 
here the nest, with eggs, and have since seen the species, from 
time to time, generally in secluded woods abounding in pie 
pine, like the once lovely but now desolate spot where it was 
discovered. —J. E. CABOT. 

A REMARKABLE PECULIARITY OF CenTROCERCUS UROPHASIANU 

A peculiarity of this species, which I have not seen noti 

its stomach, instead of being hard and very muscular as in 

Gallinacea, is soft and membraneous, like that of the bird 
prey. This was first told me by hunters in Nevada, and Ł 
wards satisfied myself of the truth of their statement that 

sage hen ‘thas no gizzard,” by dissecting & § oe 

individuals. This bird is never, known to eat grain, but 
sists almost entirely upon green leaves of Artemisia 
rrasshoppers — ROBERT RIDGWAY. e 


snopp 


ZOOLOGY. 241 


On A HUMMINGBIRD NEW TO OUR FAUNA, WITH CERTAIN OTHER 
FACTS ORNITHOLOGICAL. — The following notes were colle¢ted 
during the past season (1873), in connection with the explorations 
in charge of Lieut. G. M. Wheeler, and under the auspices of the 
Engineer Department. They are selected as of especial interest, 
from a large amount of material to be embodied in a future report. 

Eugenes fulgens (Sw). Sp. Char. —Male :—Tail rather prinia arginated. Head above 


violet purple. Rest of upper parts bronzed green, bec nets bronze on the tail. 
Samy brilliant emerald green, with strong yar ‘ee tions. Lower portion of 
breast and abdomen opaque black, more velvet ards shies gom of the t throat. 


Sides of body dull green. Wing above pAs bip dull arple Upper and lower wing 
coverts green. Crissum pale browni kY 
Female: Taildouble-rounded. Above aa metallic green, each feather ne aa h 
ash, Below dull et lh jageni of throat and fore part of breast with dull grayish 
. green centres. Sides n edged with ash. Wing dull purple. Each feather ot the 
tail except the two ait which are green throughout, with broad purple bands. 
Three outer tail feathers broadly tipped with dull white which, on the outer, extends 
slightly further up on the outer web. Length 4°61; wing 2°43; tail 1:75; bill 1-09. 


This fine species has, for the first time, been ascertained to in- | 


habit the United States, it never having been observed before 
farther north than the table-lands of central Mexico. -While at 
Camp Grant, Arizona, Sept. 24th, I procured a fine female, on a 
small stream issuing from a mountain caiion. When first seen it 
was being pursued by another hummer, of which I obtained 
scarcely a glimpse, as they darted past through the trees, but I 
have little doubt that it was a second of the same species. I think 
it not unlikely that this species will be found to be not uncommon 
in summer, in the mountainous districts in southern Arizona and 
New Mexico. Here along the streams, where the flora is abundant, 
the multitude and variety of the hummingbirds, resplendent as 
they are with the most gorgeous colors, cannot fail to strike the 
most unobservant eye. In the mountains near Apache, Arizona, 
two of our species (Selasphorus rufus and S. platycerus) are found 
in almost incredible numbers, bringing forcibly to mind the ac- 
Counts of the abundance of the birds of this family, amidst the 
tropical vegetation of South America ; and it will be strange in- 
deed if a careful search i in midsummer, in these localities, does not 
-Teveal still other species, which must find, in this semi-tropical cli- 
mate and flora, a congenial home. 
Barrp’s Bontine (Centronye Bairdii, Ba). The interesting 
fact of the discovery of Baird’s bunting, in large numbers in 
orthern Dakota, by Dr. Coues, was end in the November 
ATURALIST, _ Additional ven is =m upon the range of this 
AMER. NAT vrar, v VOL. VIU. 


< 


* 


_large number of specimens were secured, all moulting, and many 


Pe ee the bead 


242 i ZOOLOGY. 


+ 


hitherto almost unknown species, by its discovery in southeastern 


_ Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. I found it in immense 
` numbers, from Sept. 20th till late in October, throughout the roll- 


ing plains along the bases of the mountains, and even quite high 
up among the foot-hills. It was usually associated with the sa- 
vanna and yellow-winged sparrows, and seems to embrace in its 


habits certain characteristics of either species. Its flight is par- 


ticularly like that of the former bird, but even more wild and irreg- 


_ular. It pursues its zigzag course for a couple of hundred yards, 


and then, suddenly turning sharply to one side, alights behind some- 
friendly. bush, or tuft of grass. Like the yellow-winged sparrow, 
it is difficult to flush, but seeks rather to evade search by running 
nimbly through the grass, changing its course frequently, and — 
hiding wherever possible, flying only when hard pressed. A. 


in extremely ragged plumage ; from their condition it is presumed 
that they were not migrants, but breed in the immediate locality. _ 
_ Biacx-sreastep Wooprecker (Sphyrapicus thyroideus Bd.). — 
This species was first made known to science through a description a 
by Cassin, published in Dec., 1851, in Pr. A. N. Se. In 1857, Dr. 
Newberry published a description of Williamson’s woodpecker 
(S. Williamsoni) ‘from specimens obtained by Lieut. William- — 
son’s Expedition: since which time the two species have been 
accepted by ornithologists as perfectly valid, the true relation 
ship of the two being wholly unsuspected. While in southern 
Colorado during the past season, I obtained abundant proof of ` 
the specific identity of the two birds in question, Williamsonii' 
being the male of thyroideus. Though led to suspect this, 
finding the two: birds in suspicious proximity, it was some t 


lus tremuloides), and both the parent birds were secured as tl the 
flew from the hole, having just entered with food for the new. 
hatched young. ‘ As regards the sexual differences of color: 
the case of thyroideus is wholly unique. In this species, th 
of the female are radically different from those of the ™ 
With this single exception as far as known, the differences 
color between the sexes, in the family of woodpeckers, are 
fined mainly to the absence, or less moni; of the bright í 


ZOOLOGY. 243 


; 


Earep Grese (Podiceps auritus var. Californicus Coues). Ina 
series of alkali lakes about thirty miles northwest of Ft. Garland, 
southern Colorado, I found this species common and breeding. A 
colony of perhaps a dozen pairs had established themselves in a 
small pond of about four or five acres in extent. In the middle 
of this, in a bed of reeds, were found upward of a dozen nests. 
These, in each case, merely consisted of a slightly hollowed pile 
of decaying weeds and rushes, four or five inches in diameter, and 
scarcely raised above the surface of the water, upon which they 
floated. In a number of instances they were but a few feet .dis- 
tant from the nests of the coot (Fulica Americana) which abounded. 
Every grebe’s nest discovered contained three eggs, which in most 
instances were fresh; but in some nests were considerably ad- 
vanced. These vary but little in shape, are considerably elongated, © 
one end being slightly more pointed than the other. They vary 
in length from 1-70 to 1-80 and in breadth from 1°18 to 1:33. The 
color is a faint yellowish white, usually much stained from contact 
with the nest. The texture is generally quite smooth, in some 
roughened by a chalky deposit. The eggs were wholly concealed 
from view by a pile of weeds and other vegetable material laid 
across. That they were thus carefully covered, merely for con- 

_ Cealment, I cannot think, since in the isolated position. in which 
_ these nests are usually found, the bird has no enemy against which 
such precaution would avail. On first approaching the locality 
_ the grebes were all congregated at the further end of the pond, 
and shortly betook themselves through an opening to the neigh- 
bouring slough ; nor so far as I could ascertain did they again ap- 
proach the nests during my stay of three days. Is it not then 
possible that they are more or less dependent for the hatching of 
their eggs, upon ‘the artificial heat induced by the decaying vege- 
: table substances of which the nests are wholly composed ?—H. W. 
 -Heysnaw. 


_ Occurrence or TELEA POLYPHEMUS IN CALIFoRNIA.— A COR- 
RECTION. —On p. 454, vol. vii, of this journal, and on p. 15 of the 
“Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History,” xvi, I 
State that Telea polyphemus, the American silk worm, does not oc- 
Cur in the Pacific states. It seems that Mr. Henry Edwards, in an 
Interesting paper published in the “Proceedings of the California 
Academy of Sciences” (received Dec. 11, after my second paper 


s 
Re. 


a “extent “cannot be less than two hundred thousand to three 
~ thousand square miles, i. e., greater than the whole area € 
_ Or nearly double the area of California.” He believes | 
ae lava to have issued from fissures, some in the Coast 
a par in the Cascade and Blue Mountain Ranges. Th 


- meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Prof. 


~ common green and brown species. He stated that they had been 


ence,” what he regards as the most extraordinary lava-flood in 


greater inequalities of surface, while in northern Oregon and Wi 
` ington it becomes an absolutely universal flood, beneath which 
_ whole original face of the country, with its hills and dales 
_ tains and valleys, lies buried several thousand feet. It co 


suas the whole of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, and ra 
h. 


244 GEOLOGY. oe 


couver island. .... . This insect, though one of our Pacific 
coast varieties, has nevertheless a wide range. I have seen spec- — 
imens from Victoria, northern and middle California, San Diego, — 
cape St. Lucas, and San Blas, Mexico.” if 

On pp. 24 and 40, Bost. Proc., xvi, Gorytodes uncanaria Guen: — 
should read Platæa Californiaria H.-Sch. and Gorytodes trilinearia — 
should read Platæa trilinearia. — A. S. PACKARD, Jr. ‘ 


j a 
Tpentiry or our Hypra wiru European Specres.—At a late — 


Leidy made some remarks on our native Hydra, and described the — 


Nees as distinct eis from the green and brown ones of 


absorb the chlorophyl and reject the silicious shell. 
vours Arcella. 


GEOLOGY. 


Tue GREAT Livan oF tue West. — Prof. J. eo 
scribes in the March number of the “ American Journal of: 


world. “ Commencing in middle California as separate streams, 
in northern California it becomes a flood flowing over and com- 
pletely mantling the smaller inequalities, and flowing around 


greater portion of northern California and northwestern * 


into Montana on the east and British Columbia on the north. 


fi; s : f 
: re ANTHROPOLOGY. 245 


y _ until the post-tertiary. When the fissure eruptions had finally 
ceased, the work was taken up by volcanoes, a few of which are 
E” still active. The paper is one of much interest. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


THE MANUFACTURE or POTTERY BY THE Ixprans. — Among 
the Indians, the-women are the makers of pottery, themen look- 
ing upon it as degrading to do “squaw work.” Figs: 69 and 70. 
Two impleménts only are used in its construc- 
tion ; one is a wooden paddle (fig. 69), the other 
a flattened round stone (fig. 70). The figures 
$ here given are very much reduced in size. These 

implements are made by the women with much 


tial household articles. In earlier times when 
they had nothing but stone tools with which to 
shape them the labor must have been immense. 
After the clay has been properly mixed with 
water, and kneaded with the hands and the 
wooden paddle until it is of a.proper consistency, 
a portion is taken and placed over the flat part 
of the stone and made smooth and even by rapid \ 
pats «with the paddle. ~The clay is then placed 
oh a smooth spot on the ground with the stone. 
above it and the bottom of the utensil is thus formed. A 
Piece of clay is now taken in the hands and rolled out to the 
proper length; it is then placed around the stone in connection 
_ With the other piece and the stone is moved about on the inside 
_ While with hand and paddle-on the outside the roll of clay is flat- 
tened out and firmly united with the first piece. More, is then _ 
added in the same manner and so on until the desired size is at- 
tained. The hands are often dipped in water during the operation 
order to keep the clay moist; and the stone and hand are used 
to smooth the inside. The necessary height being attained, the 
is formed by pressing the top layer of the soft clay over the _ 
id edge of the stone, the fingers pressing the clay over while 
le stone is moved round the vessel. If feet or handles are to be 
applied, they are shaped by the fingers and stuck on; the hand is 
W ely used to smooth over the newly made vessel. The pot 


A 


Y 


— 246 es ANTHROPOLOGY. 


is then placed in the sun and constantly turned so as to expose it 
evenly to the heat. When cracks appear, the fingers are dipped 
into thick mud and -applied to them, which. process is continued — 
until all the cracks are filled after which the vessel is ready to _ 
burn. For this purpose fuel is selected which produces a gentle — 
heat, the excrements of animals being preferred. All the Pueblo 
Indians of New Mexico and the Moquies of Arizona own many 
` sheep and goats which for safety are put into pens at night, con- = 
sequently a great thickness of excrement is soon accumulated. 
This is cut into pieces and dried in the sun for fuel in their | 
” dwellings and for burning pottery. For the latter purpose 4 7 
quantity is set on fire and as soon as sufficiently burnt, some is 
put inside the vessel while the rest is piled round the sides and 
the vessel is left in this burning mass to bake, which is done very 
_evenly. If the vessel is to be glazed it is done, after being re- 
moved from the fire but while very hot, by rubbing over it v ; 
strong salt water and again exposing it to the heat. ; 
The ornamentation is done before burning and immedi 
after the vessel ceases to crack by exposure to the sun. This 
generally consists of simple, parallel lines and indentations (the 
fingers and a stick being the only instruments used to form the 
required devices). If the vessel is to be colored it is done by 
solving clay of the desired color in water; a brush is formed 
chewing the end of a stick, which is then dipped into the colo 
matter and applied to form the ornamentation, both lines 
figures being made. The vessel is now allowed to dry thor 
after which it is burned in the same manner as plain pote 
_ Sometimes vessels are uniformly colored inside and out; © 
only the outside is colored, with no other ornamentation. — 
pes generally used are orange, red, black, slate, white, bı 
and yellow. 
The quality of the clay determines the kind of vi that i 
e made. For a cooking utensil coarse clay is used, often ™ 
with very fine gravel; this quality stands heat better than 
finer clay which is used in making the choicer grades p 
The mode of manufacturing pottery here described is 
the Indians of Arizona, New Mexico, California and Utah 
present day, and when these Indians find a profitable ! 
their wares TE make articles not to be o despised by ua 
friends. 


Fa R ae 


od 


MICROSCOPY. : 247 


In many ancient burying mounds roùnd stones have been found ; 
these were ev idently used in making pottery, the wooden paddles 
which were probably placed with them having decayed. There 
is no difference between the modern article and these ancient 


- Stones found in the graves associated with pottery and other do- 


mestic articles buried with the dead.—Epwarp PALMER. 


Tue Berrres or Raamnvs' crocrus as Inpran Foop.— This is 
a fine evergreen, producing numerous red berries which render it 
very showy. The Apaches collect and pound them up with what- 
ever animal substances may be on hand, the berries imparting to 
the mixture a bright red color which is absorbed into the circula- 
tion and tinges the skin. On one occasion a detachment of the 
First Arizona Infantry Volunteers attacked a camp of Apaches 
in the Mogollon Mountains, northern Arizona, killed twenty-two 
and captured two children; the writer, being with the party as 
surgeon, examined the dead ; their abdomens were much distended 
from eating greedily of these berries and other coarse substances ; 
while their bodies exhibited a beautiful red net-work, the coloring 
matter having been taken up by the blood and diffused through 
the smaller veins. Among the captured stores were quantities of 
these berries dried, also much finely pounded meat and berries. 
A stohe mortar, near by, plainly told the purpose for which it had 
been used ; while numbers of rats and squirrels with the fur singed 
off, but otherwise entire, lay ready to form the next batch of mixed 
meat and berries. These Indians are not dainty, for they relish any 
part of an animal, even its viscera and blood. —Epwarp PALMER. 


i MICROSCOPY. 
EE s Srenon stipe.—Mr. D. S. Holman of Philadelphia, 
whose life slide has recently: become a really useful as well as a 


popular accessory to the microscope, has contrived a modification 


of that accessory to be known as the siphon slide, in which living 
objects of suitable size and habits can be retained under observa- 
tion uninterruptedly for days or even weeks. A current of water 
or other fluid, of any required temperature, is made to flow con- 
tinuously through the chamber containing the object, so that the 


processes of respiration, circulation, digestion, and nutrition, the 
oe phenomena of inflammation, and the effects of some classes of 


Poisons may be studied at leisure and under perfectly natural or 


_ entirely controllable conditions. The habits of life of ‘small 


Bd 


248 "MICROSCOPY. 


aquatic animals are similarly brought within vet of our 
tions. ror the following cut and Danipiiai of this 


Fig. 71. 


; hings merge into oylindrical mouths, 
attached a Sciam elastic tube: a of these communicates with the re 
r, While t r 


5 Is ma pier: ina Re oe Binet tion for 
agg we are sgh to the courtesy of pr editor of 
“Journal of the Franklin Institute.” 

STRUCTURE or THE Porato.— Mr. Thomas Taylor explam 
a recent article that the vascular bundles in a potato raeg 
easily seen by cutting a potato in two through its axis, the 
tion also passing through some of its eyes, and coating tt 


atei with a strong: acid or caustic alkaline solution wh 
dissolve the starch but leave the vascular bundles unaltered: 


: yesin a solution of f sugar and water ( | 


y 


$ , MICROSCOPY. 249 


to the pint) and keep it at a temperature of 75° F. for nearly two 
weeks. The fungus of fermentation will reduce the potato to a 
pulp, except the vascular bundles which may be mounted in gum 
or balsam and studied with a power of one hundred diameters. 


They constitute a beautiful object, the pointed forms leading ` 


toward the eyes being distinctly seen. 

He notices that different varieties of potatoes are affected in a 
widely different manner by the potato-rot fungus (Peronospora 
in festans) , the Jackson White, for instance, being unaffected when 
the Early Rose growing in the same field were wholly destroyed by 
fungi. He believes it probable that, other things being equal, 
those varieties of potatoes’ which have the smallest air passages 
will be least affected by the fungus. The Santa Fé potatoes re- 
sisted fungoid and infusorial action far better than any other vari- 
eties tested, and it is claimed that they also, when growing in the 
field, resist the “rot” which destroys the varieties STONY cul- 
tivated in this country. d 


Microscopic Drawrxe. — Wishing to make a neutral tint re- 
flector, and while planning a frame in which to mount it, it occurred 
to me that a reflector to take the place of the steel disk of Soem- 
mering might be made by mounting a piece of looking-glass in the 
same .way as.a'neutral tint reflector, but with the silvering re- 
moved except a small disk less than the size of the pupil. On 
trial I found the reflection good, but the thickness of the glass 
looked through in such an oblique position tinted the field. In 
order to avoid this I made a mirror with a small disk of tin-foil 
wet with mercury and placed on the centre of a thin glass cover. 
This I mounted as before, and found it to work perfectly. This 
little contrivance which can be made by any one of ordinary me- 
chanical ability will take sig place perfectly of — expensive 
camera lucida. 

I made another, using wood in place of on, I centred a 


‘Piece of wood and turned a place for the cap end of the ocular 
and a smaller hole the rest of the distance through the bit of 


wood; turned the outside in the form of a cylinder and sawed 


off the end in a mitre-box to an angle of forty-five degrees ; then’ 


bored a one-half inch hole near the end of the tube for the re- 
flected rays, and turned a disk with a cell for the mirror and fitted 


: : e thin glass, cea it in with a small ring g of wood glued over | 


# 


= “Monthly Microscopical Journal” a thread-worm (Filari 
~ miis), infesting the vascular system of the dog, and thus 


oe blood, isan entrance into the system. “The faculty 


Nuphar. The whole interior of the leaf is studded with them. — 


_ the lake, buoyed up by innumerable life-preservers which are not 


Hunt, M.D. 


250 MICROSCOPY. 


the edge of the glass. The microscope being arranged for draw- — 
ing and an object focussed, this tube was adjusted and the oblique 2 
end smeared with glue; then the disk was fitted to the end-of the 
tube in such a manner that the bit of mirror was in its optical 
axis. After the glue was dry the projecting edge of the disk was 
removed and the eye end of the apparatus cut down so that the 
eye might approach the reflecting surface. This works nicely, 
and is much more easily made than the brass mounting.—F. B. — 
Kimpatyt, M.D. A 
AIR-CELLS IN A FLoatine Lear.—In the leaf of Limnanthemum — 
lacunosum, or floating-heart, may be demonstrated multitudes of 
peculiar stellate bodies, apparently like those found in the stem of — 


Tees 


There are no ordinary large air-spaces so_often found in other | 
floating leaves, but all through the parenchyma these curious bod- 
ies are irregularly scattered. : 

They vary in size and also in the number of rays given off by — 
each. These rays are smooth and not echinulate like those in — 
Nuphar. In the field of a % lens I have counted hundreds at one — 
view. Under the polarizing binocular microscope properly illu- 
minated, they are revealed with startling distinctness and beauty. 
- It is nearest the under epidermis that they are located, and the 
best view therefore is obtained from beneath. Their true physio- 
logical significance is not doubtful. In the natural condition they 
contain air, and the floating-heart rides securely on the surface 0 


likely to shift out of place. 

e veins in the leaf are present, of course, but are compara- 
tively rudimentary. The vascular bundles are faintly marked, and 
only a few delicate supporting cells line their margins ; thus giving 
another example of nature’s economy, for where strongly 
oped organs are not necessary there we fens not find P =h 


Lire or Hæmarozoa. — Francis H. Welch describes in 


rizes as to the method by which such parasites, which are 
doubly interesting from having, been recently discovered in 


/ 


MICROSCOPY. . 251 


migration of the white corpuscles of the blood through the tissues 
of the body has been demonstrated ; the diameter of the body of 
the young filaria is considerably below that of the corpuscle ; hence 
with the brisk, wriggling movements of life, the possibility of their 
passage through a mucous membrane, especially through the soft 
granulations of an ulcer, is quite within the bounds of reality. 
Based upon the facts we know, we may in imagination follow them 
from a mucous tract (e. g. the intestine) to a lacteal or blood ves- 
sel; they follow the eourse of the circulation, growing on the 
pabulum of the blood of the host, and easily passing with the 
corpuscles through the capillaries; soon their size unfits them to 
traverse every viscus, and the minute capillaries of the lungs act 
as a sieve to retain them in the venous circulation; they copulate 
and the females become fecund ; a young brood arises to continue 
the race, provided accidental causes, such as mechanical block- 
ing up of important, blood-vessels by the parent worm, do not de- 


termine the death of the host. By this hypothesis the ingress of 
h 


individuals capable of arriving at maturity is explained, while the 
countless hordes of young are rendered lucid only by the pres- 
ence of one or more parent worms within the vascular walls. 
These parent worms after producing their progeny may possibly 
die and disintegrate, and. so account for their absence, or non- 
discovery, in hosts teeming with the young brood.” The presence 
of the, parent worm is attributed suggestively to the ingestion of 
water or under-cooked flesh containing them. 


Finpinc tHe CuemicaL Focus IN PHOTOMICROGRAPHY.—Prof. 
H. A. Rowland has suggested, at the Troy Scientific Association, 
the simple expedient of laying a broad flat object, as for instance 
& microphotograph or a large transparent section, obliquely upon 
the stage, so that one edge shall be considerably higher than the - 
other.. The objective is then carefully focussed for some one well- 
marked portion of the object, and a photograph taken which will 


_ Of course show the best definition at some other portion. The in- 


strument is next focussed for the point in the object which in the 
photograph is best defined, and the distance apart of these two 
planes, measured by the fine adjustment wheel, being the distance 
of the chemical from the visual focus, is a correction which may 
always be employed in photographing with the same objective, the 


_ lens being focussed as usual by sight and then turned out of focus 


Rs ; os 


4 


252 ; ? MICROSCOPY. 


the required distance. This method is applicable to the lose 
powers, and is for them far preferable to the usual procedure of 7 
guessing at the amount of correction required and taking a series — 7 
of photographs to determine which is the most successful correc- ; 
tion. a: 


A SPHERICAL Diiia usies to use tubular diaphragaal 2 
with my microscope, and knowing how clumsy the ordinary ones’ — 
are, I set to work, and endeavored to devise a substitute. I made 
a globe one and one-fourth inches in diameter and drilled holes 
through it of the proper grade of sizes, and adjusted it so that bya — 
spring stop the holes will correspond tothe axis of the microscope — 
when the ball is revolved on its axis by a milled head at the right — 
of the stage. The fittings are so arranged that the diaphragm t 
may approach or recede from the stage so as to touch the slide or 
be far from it. The globe may be made hollow and the lower Pa 
cut off if the tubular wells are not desired. I think this form of a 
diaphragm offers many advantages over the ordinary piece of ap- a 
paratus.—F. B. KIMBALL. l | 


and cutting slices through both carrot and leaf. The sections a 
then soaked in water in a watch-glass under an exhausted t 
ceiver, stained with hematoxylin, and transferred through water, 
absolute alcohol and oil of cloves to the mounting medium. In 
the oil of cloves they would curl up were they not prevented bya 
heavy cover glass laid upon them. 


ANOTHER Erecror.—John A. Perry, of Liverpool, recomme 
an objective, inverted, above the ey¢-piece as an erector. Wi 
1 inch working objective and A-ocular, a } or 4 objective aan 
inverted and stood upon the cap of the oe.. giving an incr 
of power and of working distance as well as an erect image. : 

4 objective supported on an adapter two inches long seems to | 
form as well as any; but the inconveniences of the method $i 
to be too great for its advantages, J 


; _ Cemexrs. —Mr, F Kitton prefers, for making varnish 


: : with the addition of a small quantity of gold size; 
cells when Sela Eien sige over graki in a cool ovem. 


’ NOTES. ` 953 


gold size ; the exterior ring being of vermilion or purple lake, and 
the interior ring white zinc in preference to white lead. Sealing 
wax varnish he does not trust. | 


AUTO-mMICcROscopy.—Dr. Otto Obermier, who died of cholera 
at Berlin a few months since at the age of thirty-one, deserves to 
be remembered as the first microscopist, probably, who continued 
his studies in pathology by the study of his own blood during 
the progress of the disease of which he died; the disease having 
been contracted, also, by imprudent devotion to its investigation. 


MEASURING THE GROWTH-RATE OF PLANTs.—E. Askenasy meas- 
ures with a micrometer the advance of the growing point of a root 
or branch in a glass tube in the field of the microscope. The stem 
is fixed by cork or other means at one end of the tube, and the 
conditions of light, temperature and moisture are easily regulated. 


A Revotvine Amp.icier.—Mr. John Emery exhibited, at the 
Royal Microscopical Society, a series of amplifiers, plano-concave 
lenses of different foci, arranged in a metallic disk which revolves 
‘BO as to bring any desired lens within the body of the microscope. 


| Quærme Fròes.—At the Medical Microscopical Society, Dr. 
Bruce stated that a frog might be quieted, for experiment on the 
circulation, etc., by holding for a few minutes in the hand, as well 
as by the usual plan of immersing in warm water. 


NOTES. n a 


Lr. G. W. WHEE eEr’s Expedition, for the Survey of the Territo-_ 
- ries west of the 100th meridian, has lately returned to Washington 
to elaborate the results of the last season’s work in the field. A 
very extensive ground in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Ari- 
zona was thoroughly gone over, and large collections were made 
_ by the naturalists of the expedition in all departments of zoology, 
as well as in botany and geology. The suite of birds is particu- 
larly large and valuable, embracing many rarities and desiderata. 
- Too much credit cannot be given to Mr. H. W. Henshaw for his, 
indefatigable | exertions in this department. His skins are in ad- 
mirable preservation, and form one of the most valuable lots ever 
brought. from the West. The birds and mammals will be elabo- 
| me by Mr. Hènshaw, in connection with De. LE Yarrow, a 


$ 


254 NOTES. 


well-known and accomplished naturalist. The collection of reps 
tiles, fishes and insects is large; these objects will severally 3 


tion. Among the Orthoptera, it may be observed, many of Hald- 
emann’s little known or lost species are recovered. .There isa 
valuable collection of crania, implements and other ethnological 
material. The field work in Natural History of 1873 was accom- 
plished by Mr. Henshaw, with Dr. Rothrock, the talented young 
botanist, Dr. Newberry, Jr., and Dr. Loew. Next season, the 
same department will be placed entirely in the charge of Dr. 
Yarrow, who will be assisted by Dr. Rothrock, Mr. Henshaw and - 


this excellent arrangement. We-learn that seven volumes show- 
- ing the progress of the work thus far, and beautifully illustrated, 
are now being arranged for the printer. Every naturalist will 
join us in hoping that the good work may be successfully prose- 
cuted, and in trasting that the appropriations necessary to this 
end may be made by Congress 


Tur annual social meeting of the Troy Scientific Association 
was held Jan. 19th, at the residence of Dr. Ward, on Fourth 
street. Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather the atten l 
ance was good, nearly one hundred being present, and half of that 
number ladies. Among the gentlemen present were noticed Rev. 
Dr. Robinson, Rev. Dr. Irvin, Rev..Mr. Her ‘yey, Rev. Mr. Young, 
and many other leading citizens. After'a talk of about two hours, 
the election of officers for the ensuing year was proceeded wit 
Prof. Beattie read the report of the committee on nominati 
which recommended the election of the following gentlemen: 
President, Dr. R. H. Ward; First Vice President, Rev. A. ! 
Hervey; second do., Rev. Wm. Irvin; Corresponding Secret 
F. H. Stevens; Recording Secretary, Prof. A. E. Bower; Treas- 
urer, Prof. David Beattie. On motion the report was accep 
_ and the parties above named duly elected. The following pe 
. were elected members of the Association; resident mem 
| Francis O. Dorr; of Troy, and Albert E. Powers, of Lansingbu 
corresponding member, John Jones, of- Rensselaerville, N. > 
After the election and other formal business had been trans 
the company repaired to the dining room, and were, hospitably 
` tertained. 


» 


NOTES. 255: 


Tue Rev. John Bachman of Charleston, S. C., died on Feb. 25th, - 
at the venerable age of 85. This eminent naturalist and theolo- 
gian was a native of New York, having been born in Dutchess 
county, Feb. 4, 1790. He joined the ministry of the Lutheran 
Church in 1813, and in 1815 became pastor of the German Church 
of that denomination in Charleston, S. C., retaining that office 
_ until his death. He was an associate of Audubon, whom he as- 
. sisted in the preparation of his great work on Ornithology, and 
was the principal author of the three volumes on the quadrupeds 
of North America, illustrated by that great naturalist and his 
sons. Bachman also published other works and about fifteen 
minor papers, all evincing unusual powers of observation, es- 
pecially those on change of color in birds, on the migration of 
birds, on the mode of reproduction of the opossum, and several 
- anthropological papers. 


Tue Legislature of Kentucky have appropriated $18,500, annu- 

ally, for two years, for a new geological survey of the state. Prof. 
. S. Shaler is appointed state geologist. 

Is not the time coming for a careful geological and zoological 
survey of the state of Massachusetts? While surveys are going 
on or have recently been completed in so many other states, it is 
not particularly to the credit of this state that a thorough survey _ 
of its geological and biological riches has not been instituted. 
It is now over thirty years since the original incomplete surv ey of 
the state was made. Since then physical science has changed so 
much that the work done then needs to be reviewed and greatly 
extended. 


Tue enterprising city of Waterbury is to be congratulated on 
the possession of a score or more of gentlemen, associated as the 
Waterbury Scientific Society, who have been endeavoring for sev- 
eral years, by popular lectures and other means, to attract the 
more intelligent of their fellow-citizens to the improvement and 
development of their minds by the begimings of scientific re- 
Search. It is not often that any except a college town has so 
~ Many men who are earnest students in special fields of knowledge, 
and who have made so much attainment in their specialties. — 
Hartford Courant. 


A Microscorrcat Society has been formed at Louisville, Ken- 
tucky : Which meets the first and third Thursdays of each month. 


l 


256 EXCHANGES. —BOOKS RECEIVED. 


The following are the names of the officers for the ensuing yee 
President, J. Lawrence Smith; Vice Presidents, Noble Butler, 
Chas. F. Carpenter ; Treasurer, C.T: F. Allen; Cor. Sec’y, E: S 
Crosier; Secretary, John Williamson; Executive Committee. 
Thos. E. Jenkins, James Knapp, W. T. Beach, E R Palner 
R. C. Gwathmey. 


Tae Maryland Academy of Sciences have recently built a nev 
hall for a museum 30X70 feet, by 20 feet high. It is ‘proposed to 
arrange in it a biological collection.of the objects chiefly rep 
sentative of the regions of which Maryland forms a part. 


EXCHANGES. 
_ Slides of Diatoms arranged in groups, agree for other mounted microscopic 
specimens ER, Gree r Co. 


£ BOOKS RECEIVED. 
Badari for Populære Fremstillinger af Naturvidenskaben. 8vo, Vol. v, Part 1. 


h 
Pro očeedings Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, 8vo, sig. 27, 1873. 
New Equine Mammals iran e Tertiary Formation. Pir 3. Marsh. 
roe ae. 1874. pvo, pp. 12, (From Am, Jour. Bc and gre Jol. vii, March, 1874.) : 
Reports on the Geological Survey of t the S uri. 1855-1871. 8v0, pp. 823. 
Maps, plates and woodcuts, AEE ues eee 
Geological Survey of Missouri, Preliminary Report on the Iron Ores and Coal ENR! 
«a Fieid Work of 1872. 8vo, pp. 655. 190 istrations in ‘ond text and an atlas. New Y: ph 
hoe 


1-12, Dee. 1871- Nov. E72. Vol, v, Nos. 1-6, Dee. 1872 ~ May ete Ups a. 
eas ee Regiæ Societatis Scientarum Upsaliensis. 4to, Series 3, aa viii, pepe 
ps 7 
P Memoires de fond sere iar T Physique et X Histoire Naturelle de Geneve. 4to, Tome xxii 
enir Entomotogiacher Zeitschrifi. 8vo, Jahrgang 17. Pts. land 2. Berlin, 1873. 
Hons of the Imperial Botanical Garden of St. Petersburg, 8v0, Tome ii, 
Potecaare, 187: 
OR agg ee — ag Naturwissenschaften Gesellschaft zu Chemnitz. 8vo. Jan.1, 1871- 
bee 
ar Vornandiungen d des ei San Led = ee ussischen Rheinlande und Westph 
0, rgang art Bonn. y 
pa ea agina ie plibg i iah henden Gesellschaft in Emden. 8V0+ 


Butletin de la Soctete des Sciences Naturelles de Neuchatel. Tome ix, Part iii, 8V0, 


ain 1873.. 
ulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou, 8v0, Plates 3-6. No. 


‘ W. 
px itzungsberic r Katsertic kastele haften. 8y vo, Band lxvi, P: 
A Hone 1-5, we givens ERT en 6 Cart 3: tet Hefte 1- 3/1873. T pie 
a — onary, of of fievati on fae Guimatte te Reiter of i of the United. States. .By J. M. Tol 
» Pp.: i ostran u F 
NeT i of Zoology. By iael Pasig Wmv, oy 172, ~G, P. Putnam’s Sons, Pu 
New « 
vie srn, the Fossil Remains of the Lower Carboniferous Limestone Exposed at Gre 
fa A. Strong. ,8vo, PP. 6, No.3 of tines Hlaneous Papers of the $ 


a ere 7 eicorological Observations made during the year 1871, at the 
J 984. Washington. 1873. with 
diz, uai Report of the Secretary of the Mass. Board of Agriculture, © 

; hee 0 ale included in some Minerals. Two papers, wil with» on 
= j onidæ, ete. tnaper, By Is anc Lea, 8V0, 


€ Aas i ima os 


Htaliana, Anno Quinto. Trimestre ae Bro. 


“ 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


ece OTD > 


THE NATURAL HISTORY OF A POLYMORPHIC 
BUTTERFLY.* 


BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER. 


Tunis butterfly (Iphiclides Ajax) occurs east of the great plains, 
in the Carolinian and the southern half of the Alleghanian fauna; 
it extends north almost to the annual isotherm of 50°, even passing ` 
that line in the region of the great lakes, so as to include southern 
Michigan and the whole of Ohio, but, apparently, not following 
the upward curve of the isotherm beyond the Mississippi. In the 


. South it reaches the gulf coast, but how far it extends down the ` 


Florida peninsula is undetermined; its western extension is 
unknown ; it has been reported neither from Texas nor Arkansas, 
although it is common in Missouri (Riley). Prof. Parker states 
that it occurs on the Mississippi at least as far north as 
Island, Ill., and that he has taken a few specimens at Keokuk and 
Davenport, Iowa, although none at Grinnell. It occurs in southern 
Michigan (Mus. Mich. Univ., Andrews) and in many localities in 
Ohio, such as Cleveland —“ not uncommon” (Kirtland) ; “ common 
where papaw bushes are” (Kirkpatrick); Columbus, “still more 
abundant” than at Cleveland (Kirtland) ; Rockport, Poland and 
Hudson (Kirtland) and Eastern Ohio (Foster) ; a single specimen 
has been reported from Komoka, Ontario, Canada (Saunders). In 
be Nae came cre rs A 


ye 


* Pi PN } h pt po Papilio Ajax in M 8 forth- 
coming work upon the Butterflies of New England and the adjoining regions; this will ` 
acconnt for Pen form in EA ee C E ted DS. NAT. j 


This article ij 2 


ount 


ian a a ea sd 7 
q,, Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF 
SCIENCE, in th Office or t )rarian of Congress, at Washington. 

AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 17 (257) 


: 908 POLYMORPHIC BUTTERFLY. 


Maryland (Uhler) it is “rare” and about Philadelphia (Blake) it 
is not common. Finally, one specimen has been taken near 
Brooklyn, N. Y. (Graef fide Akhurst). i 
As in some other dimorphic species, however, the distribution 
of the several varieties does not seem to be coextensive with that 
of the species. Unfortunately, our information here is very 
meagre, since the polymorphism of the insect has only recently 
been proved. It is; however, certain that the numerical superi- - 
ority of the variety Marcellus over Walshii and Telamonides is 
far greater in the north than in the south; indeed, near the 
northern limit of the insect’s range, Walshii and Telamonides are 
‘hardly known, and in extreme northern localities where only a few | 
specimens have been recorded, these have always been Marcellus. 
` The caterpillar, according to numerous authorities, feeds upon 
the papaw (Asimina triloba Dunal) and, according to Dr. Chapman, 
upon other species of the same genus such as A. parviflora Dunal, 
` A. grandiflora Dunal, and A. pygmea Dunal. Boisduval and Le — 
Conte also state that it feeds upon the latter and upon A. palus 
tris,—plants belonging to the Anonacez or custard-apple family. 
Some of the caterpillars, as shown by Mr. Edwards’ observations, 
attain their full growth in twelve days, although others, especially 
the produce of the form Walshii, requirenearly a month. They — 
do not draw the leaves of the plant together like the larve of the 
genera represented by Troilus and Glaucus. They are.to be found 
in every stage “‘ resting on the surfaces of the leaves, and one would 
suppose they must be nearly exterminated by birds. But like all an 
Papilio larve they emit from the head [first thoracic segment], at , 
the same time that they project a Y-shaped tentacle, a pecu i a 
acrid and. sickening odor, which must effectually protect them. a 
In a letter, Mr. Edwards adds that he does “ not believe a starving : 
bird would touch one, the stench being so strong as nearly 10 
‘turn one’s stomach.” : — 
_ Science is deeply indebted to Mr. Edwards, for the thorough 


manner in which he has worked out the history of this. butte) — 


PARIER 


sumed to be identical), but has proved the existence of a third a | 


* Edwards, Butterflies N. America, part ix. 


POLYMORPHIC BUTTERFLY. 259 


manent form and has admirably traced the relations of each form 
to the others. The account given below is almost entirely based 
on his observations. 

_No histories of butterflies are of deeper interest than those of 
polymorphic species, whether considered in themselves alone or 
in the light they are destined to throw upon the origin of species 
and races, problems which demand the profoundest thought and 
most conscientious investigation ; and since this species is poly- 
morphic in a larger sense than any other American butterfly is 
known to be, our interest is greatly enhanced. 

_As hinted above, Ajax appears under three different forms — 
Walshii, Telamonides and Marcellus, the polymorphism affecting 
both sexes equally. These forms are shown by Mr. Edwards to 
produce one another in a complicated manner, but in general the 
imago exhibits what has been termed seasonal polymorphism ; 
that is, a series of individuals adhering, in all their variations, to 
several distinct types, each type appearing at a different season 
of the year from the others ; thus Walshii is the early spring type, 
Telamonides the late spring, and Marcellus the summer and autumn 
type. Nearly all the butterflies which, in West Virginia, emerge 
from the chrysalis before the middle of April are Walshii ; between’ 
that and the end of May, Telamonides; after this, Marcellus. 
The first two, however, do not appear properly to represent distinct 
broods; and this point (to which Mr. Edwards has failed to draw 
special attention) is one of the most extraordinary features in the 
history of the insect ; for Telamonides, judging from his recorded 
observations, is not the direct conseasonal produce of Walshii, 

ut both are solely made up of butterflies which have wintered as 
chrysalides, those which disclose their inmates earliest producing 
Walshii, the others, Telamonides ; while all butterflies- produced 
from eggs of the same season—and there are several successive 
broods —belong to Marcellus. Thus, besides the true seasonal 
dimorphism which distinguishes the butterflies produced from eggs 
of the same season from those derived from eggs of the previous 
Season, we have a secondary seasonal dimorphism, as it may well © 
be called, separating the earlier from the later produce of wintering 
chrysalides. 

_ Mr. Edwards has also proved by his experiments that a portion 
of every brood of chrysalides, instead of disclosing the imago at 
the end of the ordinary time, retain it, occasionally until the ap- 


260 POLYMORPHIC BUTTERFLY. 


pearance of a subsequent brood, but usually until the next spring, 
The spring brood (Walshii-Telamonides) is therefore by no means 
wholly produced from ¢hrysalides of the final brood of Marcellus, 
but in large measure from those of all the earlier broods, even in- 
cluding the earliest Walshii; the proportion of chrysalides which 
continue until spring increases asthe season advances, Mr. Edwards — 
statements showing that of those produced from eggs laid in April, 
more than ten per cent. pass over, those from eggs laid May 1-25 
about thirty-five per cent., from that time until the end of June 
from fifty to sixty per cent. and from those laid in July about sev- 
enty per cent. Walshii and Telamonides, then, produce Marce us 
the same season, or either Walshii or Telamonides in the spring; 
Marcellus produces itself the same season, or one of the’ others 
in the spring; but neither Walshii nor Telamonides is produced 
the same season by any of. the varieties.* : 
We will now consider the life-history of Ajax. The insect Is 
multibrooded and winters as a chrysalis. The earliest variety) 
Walshii, ‘‘appears in the Kanawha valley (W. Va.), from the 15th 
to 20th of March, by which time the peach trees are usually 
blossom. On these. the females may certainly be found, and $ 
little later, on the apple and in great numbers on the wild ph 
The males appear a few days earlier [than the females] and are 
be seen by the water-side or upon the road, but rarely upon flow 
The larvæ feed on the papaw, and as this is one of the latest 
of our trees to put forth its leaves, the butterflies are out at least 
from two to three weeks, before the young shoots of the food plant 
are visible. But no sooner do these appear than the fem 
hasten to deposit their eggs.” This is early in April and the 


* Th orded ptions to this rule (which serye only to strengthen it) are! sal 
: a Tel id ptured, September 12th, and a Marcellus April Hth; 

other í tions oceurred in the course of Mr. Edwards’ experiments. 
igable worker has traced the history of more than two hundred individuals from 
to butterfly, and of the: ly two did not follow the usual course; these 7 
to a brood produced from eggs laid by Walshii before the middle of April; pr sa 
va 1. n C E P T E N" e PE éb nzr ting a pair pik 


lo 
LOW 


Marcell ) hatched bet June Ist and 6th; fifty-eight chrysalides produ 

lus, one Walshii and one Telamonides; so that the solitary specimen of Walshil 

far out of season, for Mr. Edwards expressly says: “about the first of June 
i u 


bame season. It must be remembered that similar instances of 
by no means very uncommon among butterflies. 

t Edwards, Butterflies of N. America, Unless otherwise stated, all these Fe 
are based upon Mr. Edwards’ observations in W. Virginia. Ja 


POLYMORPHIC BUTTERFLY. 261 


continue to lay them until as late as May 23d; the eggs hatch in 
from seven to eight days and the caterpillars are from twenty-two 
to twenty-nine days in attaining their growth. 

Telamonides, which, as stated above, is only a later variety of 
the same brood, “ begins to fly some weeks after Walshii, and both 
forms... . are for a time common.” Telamonides evidently 
lays its eggs very soon, for “on dissecting the abdomen of a newly 
emerged female, the eggs are found to be fully formed though not 
full-sized. Iconclude that they mature with great rapidity because 
fertile eggs are laid by apparently fresh and uninjured females.” 
Mr. Edwards records eggs laid from May 11th to June 2d; these 
are hatched much more rapidly than those of Walshii (although 
they are not always laid later in the season), namely, in from four 
to five days ; the caterpillars, too, mature more quickly, attaining 
their growth in from fifteen to eighteen days, thus often overtaking 
their tardier predecessors. ‘* About the first of June Walshii 
[imago] disappears, and before the end of the month Telamonides 
also.” 


Still farther south, it is evident that the apparition of the butter- 
flies is advanced ; for in Georgia, Abbot records Walshii as emerg- 
ing from the chrysalis March 2d, and Dr. Chapman took it in 
northern Florida, in the latter half of February, 1868 and 1869; 
late in March he also records the species as ‘‘numerous,” so we 
may perhaps fairly surmise that Telamonides appears at this time. 

** About the first of June, Marcellus begins to appear and shortly 
is out in great numbers, continuing to be abundant till last of 
October.” The broods overlap each other so as to be distinguished 
With difficulty, but it appears that, besides the brood of Walshii- 
Telamonides already mentioned, there are at least three successive 
broods of Marcellus.* The larve of Telamonides, as we have 
Seen, often overtake the later larvee of Walshii—the earlier laryæ 
are by this time (the middle of May) in chrysalis and continue 
fourteen days ; the first brood of Marcellus from these chrysalides, 
and from those of Telamonides, continues to emerge until at least 
the ninth of J uly, or for more than five weeks.t The chrysalides 


_* Mr. Edwards’ language on this point seems a little vague; he says: “ Besides the 
first brood from Walshii, or Telamonides, there are three successive broods of Mar- 
cellus, and the rae ge fourth give chrysalides that go over the winter, thus 

making five broods pe 
Aras of a ae of lacres from eggs of Walshii, reared in 1871, Mr. I A 
While the mass of the chrysalides (all of which suspended within a week of 


262. POLYMORPHIC BUTTERFLY. 


from larvæ of Telamonides hang from eleven to fourteen days, and 
the time for the completion of their entire cycle is only from thirty — 
to thirty-seven days, which is seldom exceeded by Marcellus: — 
(twenty-seven to thirty-eight days), although much quicker than 
the period of Walshii (forty-three to fifty-one days). 

The female of the first brood of Marcellus commences to lay eggs _ 
— which, like those of Telamonides, hatch in four or five days—at 
the very beginning of June, and butterflies produced from them, i 
i. e. the second brood of Marcellus, are upon the wing early in 
July—not only before the butterflies of the previous brood — 
have disappeared, but even before all the chrysalides from eggs of ; 
Telamonides have eclosed their butterflies; the attempt to trace a 
the sequence of the broods is, therefore, almost hopelessly bewil- : 
dering ; but it seems probable that the second brood of Marcellus 
(the third of Ajax) appears in abundance early in July; it is, 
perhaps, in speaking of the first brood of Marcellus in Alabama, 
that Gosse says they are “nearly all gone July 1st.” These larve — 
attain their growth in from twelve to nineteen days, and hang as 
chrysalides from eleven to fourteen, and it is therefore impossk — 
ble that there should not bea third brood of Marcellus; that — 
fourth brood is even at times possible would appear from the fact 2 
that the insects continue to change from one stage to another : 
without any apparent regard to the approach of winter, which 
overtakes many in conditions under which they are obliged to 
succumb; thus Mr. Riley writes from Missouri: «I have found 
eggs and larve two-thirds grown, as late as the middle of October, a 
when the leaves were almost all fallen ; the parent ought to know 
better if instinct. is.so infallible.” Doubleday remarks that 02 
the Ohio the species was very numerous after the tenth of ie 
tember ; if this is an indication of a new brood in September; | é 
if the second brood of Marcellus appear early in July in this locality 
also, then the butterflies seen by Doubleday must have been s 
fourth brood of Marcellus, or the fifth of Ajax. I do not : 
there is another instance on record of a five-brooded butterfly. 

The results reached by Mr. Edwards in his study of this i 
fly have recently been the subject of some curious com pe 
each other) eclosed the butterflies between June 1st and 6th, yet “ on 23d sone fi 


Be oe eo Me ee eg Ae? Al ep nach eM 


owed on the 
weeks after its period, came another 9 Marcellus and a second eee of 
12th of July;” but even the latter date is only three days after that of OU romi 


to butterfly, 


$ 


POLYMORPHIC BUTTERFLY. ` 263 


Mr. Meldola of England, in a paper upon the “amount of sub- 
stance waste undergone by insects in the pupal state.” * 

This writer thinks he has shown that the comparative size of the 
three forms of Ajax is exactly opposite to what we should expect. 
In his preliminary general remarks, it is presumed a priori that as 
there is in all insects gain of matter in the larval state, and loss 
during the pupal, the size of an individual of any given species 
“would be, ceteris paribus, inversely proportional to the ratio of 
the pupal to the larval period, or directly proportional to the ratio 
of the larval to the pupal period.” 

He attempts to test this theory by tabulating the statements of 
Mr. Edwards concerning the duration of the stages in the differ- 
ent forms of Ajax, and he finds that there is “a relationship but 
exactly the reverse of that which would be anticipated from the 
conclusions previously set forth.” 
= Walshii, Telamonides and Marcellus, as we have seen, succeed 
each other in season ; they also increase regularly in size in the same 
order. The following table represents the duration of the several 
Stages and is taken by Mr. Meldola from Mr. Edwards’ work. 


TOTAL. 


NAME OF VARIETY. | EGG. | ; LARVA. | CHRYSALIS. 
Wiretap 


Walshii . . . | 7-8 days_| 22-29 days 14 days | 43-51 days 
Telamonides | 4-5 “  |15-18 “ | 11-14 “ | 30-87. « 
Marcellus. .| 4-5 “ |1219 « niu s 27-38 “ 


The next table is Mr. Meldola’s attempted tabulation of the 
facts, by which he comes to the above conclusion. 


NAME OF VARIETY. Pe PEA OG. RATIO OF MEAN LARVAL TO ipso Fe 
PAR O an 

Walshii .... | 3, = 0-549 t isn | 2-70 
Telamonides . 42:2 = 0:757 48:4 = 1-320 3-00 
Marcellus...) 484—0806 | 4$2—=1:240 | 3-35 
Che a ee eS . 

ae 


“Tt is here seen,” says Mr. Meldola, “that the size of the vari- 
ety is directly instead of inversely proportional to the ratio of the 
-Y 1S directly instead o 


* Ann, Mag. Nat. Hist., Oct., 1873, p. 301. 


964 - POLYMORPHIC BUTTERFLY. 


pupal to the larval period, and vice versd.” Unfortunately for this a 
conclusion the figures given by Mr. Edwards, or their reduction by 
Mr. Meldola, refer in each case to the progeny of Walshii, Tela- n 
monides and Marcellus, and do not bear upon the question at all. F 
In every instance given in the tables, the progeny or resultant e 2 
Marcellus. By Mr. Meldola’s rule, Walshii and Telamonides, — 
being the produce of wintering ¢hrysalides, should be, as they are, e 
smaller than Marcellus, since the ‘latter is always the result of : 
short-lived, summering chrysalides ; unless, however, some unknown 
factor plays a part, Telamonides should be smaller than Walshit, a 
. because produced later in the season from wintering chrysalides + ; 
but here the opposite is the case. ee. 
The extreme abundance of Ajax is well attested by Edwards, 3 
when he says: “at certain seasons it is almost impossible to find af 
a young plant [of papaw] that is free from . . . . eggs and E o 3 
easy to collect scores of them.” i a 
“The female of Ajax may frequently be seen coursing through - 
the papaw trees which . .... cover the lower hillsides, or how = 
ering about the young plants that spring up in the cultivated fiel : 
searching for leaves on which to deposit her eggs. After touching a 
or running over and rejecting several, she finds one suitable to es 
purpose. Thereupon balancing by the rapid fluttering of A 
wings, she stands for an instant with legs stretched at full leng®" a 
perpendicular to the body, and curving down the abdomen ul . 
it touches the surface, deposits a single egg ; then flies away, ma 
ently to alight on a second leaf with like intent. Sometimes a 
egg is upon the stem, ànd occasionally on the under side sit 
leaf, but almost always it is upon the upper side, and pe 
one egg will usually be found on the same leaf. The p 7 
laying continues for several successive days.” (Edwards). — 
. Doubleday, speaking in particular of the spring-brood we a 
“I rarely saw it alight on flowers. Now and then it would alig 
on flowers of Anona grandiflora... . . its flight low, rapid ( 
sailing with its wings expanded as P. Thoas and others). < cleat 
_ in and around the low scattered brush wood, by the sides wi a 
ings, old deserted cotton fields, and similar situations, often ; 
turning to the same spots ; in fact so regular did the round er 
be taken, that I have often waited behind a bush for a few me 

for the return of an individual I had seen pass, and rarely = 
* Arcana Entomologica, i, 61. oe 


= 


POLYMORPHIC BUTTERFLY. 265 


by this means to capture it. It is a shy insect and darts out of 
its course at the least motion.” Speaking of the autumn brood, — 
which he considers a distinct species, he adds (loc. cit.): “its 
flight is rather more graceful than that of P. Ajax [i. e. the spring 
brood] ; it sometimes alights in the muddy places by the roadsides 
where little streamlets cross, especially during the heat of the 

irtland, too, remarks: “these two species are readily 
recognized by their peculiar mode of flight ;”* but Edwards makes 
no comment “pon this point. 

“ Many eggs,” says Biwig i “are destroyed by insects and 
spiders. There is a minute scarlet spider scarcely larger than the 
egg itself, that mounts upon it and from a puncture extracts the 
contents. I frequently met the shells so despoiled before I dis- 
covered the cause, and have since observed the marauder in its 
operations. I have also lost in a single night, owing as I sup- 
posed to crickets, numbers of eggs laid in confinement.” Speak- 
ing of the caterpillar he says: “Ihave . . . seen spiders feeding 
upon them, attacking even the head, and they have other enemies 
among the insects! They are very little troubled by ichneumon 
flies in this valley, and I have rarely lost a chrysalis from that 
cause. Consequently no Papilio is so abundant here throughout 
the season. I find on breeding them that a considerable percentage 
of the eggs do not hatch, and that more or less of the larvæ die 
at every moult, as well as in the effort to change to chrysalides. 
Multitudes of chrysalides, must be destroyed in the winter by birds 
and mice as they are but imperfectly concealed under stones and 
roots, or even among the stems of the grasses, so that of the tens 
of thousands of eggs that are annually deposited, but a very 
small proportion produce butterflies.” The caterpillar is, however, 
sometimes attacked by Trogus exesorius Brullé, the imago of which 
escapes from the chrysalis by cutting a circular opening, usually 
through one of the wings. 

Desiderata. Although so carefully studied by Mr. Edwards, there 
are still sorne points in the history of Ajax which require inves- 
tigation. The distribution of the insect in the west and. of each 
form throughout its natural range should be more definitely deter- 
mined. The season of the apparition of the different varieties -in 
the extreme southern states, and of the different broods of Mar- 
cellus everywhere, is still unknown and will require careful study ; - 

* Trans. Entom., Soc. Lond., n. s. i, 1851, Proc. ci. 


266 GAME FALCON. 


but perhaps the most interesting and fruitful investigation will be 
tofollow still further the line of Mr. Edwards’ experiments, and 
study the proportion of chrysalides of each brood which retain 
their inmates until spring; noting every instance of: the partial 
retention of the chrysalis, to discover to what extent pupæ, appar- 
ently destined to hibernate, disclose the butterfly the same season ; 
and, further, to determine whether both Walshii and Telamonides 
are indifferently produced from any of the broods of the previous 
year. Mr. Meldola’s studies would lead us to conjecture that 
Walshii is gerierally produced from the later. broods of Marcellus, 
and Telamonides from the earlier broods of the same, and from 
‘Telamonides and Walshii; but Mr. Edwards’ experiments show 
that this is not invariably the case. The postures of the butter- 
fly have not been described. 


THE GAME FALCONS OF NEW ENGLAND. 
THE SPARROW HAWK. 


BY DR. WILLIAM WOOD. 
Sansa 

Tus beautiful little hawk has the peculiar markings of the true | 
* falcon, and is the smallest and handsomest of the family Falcon- 
ide. It is found all over the continent, and is said to be the mos 
numerous of the hawk family. While this no doubt is the fact, 
yet in New England it is not common. It is about as rare as the 
pigeon hawk, but not so irregular in its visitations. I have tT 
ceived only ten specimens in twenty years. Allen in his ornitho- 
logical notes on the birds of the Great Salt Lake Valley say% 
‘The sparrow hawk was by far the most numerous of the Falcon- 
ide. Thirty were seen in the air at one time near the mouth of 
Weber Cañon engaged in the capture of the ‘hateful’ grasshoppe" 
which everywhere filled the air and which seemed at this season 
to form the principal food of this and other birds.” In the south- 
ern states where it is very numerous it may be seen about the old 
fields, orchards and gardens, sitting erect on a fence, stake, mul- 
lein stalk, or a dead limb of a tree, watching for small birds, mice 
grasshoppers or beetles, upon which it chiefty subsists, seldom 


GAME FALCON. 267 


committing depredations among the young poultry. When leav- 
ing its stand it usually flies low and swiftly, and just before 
reaching its intended perch rises up with a semicircular sweep, 
and alights with ease, instantly closing its wings and keeping its 
balance by the motion of its tail, not using its wings for that pur- _ 
pose, as do most hawks when alighting. They become very much 
attached to one particular spot and may be seen for weeks and 
months occupying the same stump or stake. Their flight is usu- 
ally short and irregular; sometimes hovering for a short time 
with suspended wings, reconnoitring for prey, and then flying off 
to another place to renew the same manœuvre. They are easily 
SERED Audubon relates an instance of his taking a young 
and providing it with food until able to hunt for himself, 
aA he let him go. ‘This proved,” says Audubon, ‘‘a gratifica- 
tion to both of us. It soon hunted for grasshoppers and other in- 
sects, and returning from my walks, I now and then threw up a 
dead bird high in the air which it never failed to perceive from its 
stand, and towards which it launched with such quickness as 
sometimes to catch it before it fell to the ground. To the last he 
continued kind to me, and never failed to return at night to his 
favorite roost behind the window shutter. His courageous dispo- 
sition often amused the family, as he would sail off from his perch 
and fall on the back of a tame duck which, setting up a loud 
quack, would waddle off in great alarm with the hawk sticking to 
her. In attempting to secure a chicken one day, the old hen at- 
tacked him with such violence as to cost him his life.” When 
they first appear in the spring, their gyrations and cooings are 
very amusing. No falling in love at first sight can be more amo- 
rous. Audubon has described it so graphically that I venture to 
quote. ‘When spring returns, each male bird seeks for its mate, 
whose coyness is not less innocent than that of .the gentle dove. 
Pursued from place to place, the female at length yields to the im- 
portunity of her dear tormentor, when side by side they, sail 
screaming aloud their love notes. With tremulous wings they 
search for a place in which to deposit their eggs; the birds sit 
alternately, each feeding the other and watching with silent care. 
The family resort to the same field, and.each chooses his stand, 
stake or mullein stalk, and together hunt.” The sparrow hawk is 
somewhat dainty, refusing to eat woodpeckers or tainted food, 
and it is said if it catches a mouse which proves to be lousy and 


1 


268 GAME FALCON. 


poor, it will leave it and seek another. It nests in hollow trees, 
frequently occupying an old woodpecker’s hole ; sometimes, though 
rarely, it has occupied an old crow’s nest, seldom constructing a 
nest for itself, laying usually four eggs, of very uniform size. By 
taking one egg of a set from four sets and three states, I find the 
measurements as follows: 


From Pennsylvania, long diam. 1°30. Short diam. 1°12. 
i... Maine, Lg ** Woo. $ e 
‘©  Connecticút, =“ w Too s AD E 
(73 6c 1:38. {3 “66 1°15. 


The markings are somewhat variable, not any more so, however, 
than most of the eggs of our hawks. The ground color varies 


from a cream to a deep buff, blotched with small dark brown or 2 


chocolate spots, sometimes quite sparsely, then again almost con- 


‘fluently ; occasionally the blotches are quite thick at the large or- a 
small end, more commonly the former, and in some instances at 


both ends with few in the middle. Nuttall claims that this bird 
“lays from four to five eggs.” Dr. Brewer says “its eggs are 
usually as many as five in number.” Audubon says “ it lays from 


five to seven, never less than five.” It may in some sections lay 


that number of eggs, but such has not been my experience in 


New England, having known of only one set of five taken in this | 
vicinity. One of my collectors found a nest with four eggs in the 


top of a stump about ten feet from the ground, where it evidently 


had been broken off by the wind. This nest was composed of 
grass, and was discovered by the grass protruding through a crack 
in the stump. Whether the hawk constructed this nest, or whether 
it had been made by some other bird it is impossible to tell; but, 
if this hawk constructs no nest as asserted by Dr. Brewer and 


sit. During incubation they found the farmers’ chickens Vey 


convenient for food—too much so for their own good. Bo 


the birds I saw after they were killed and their four eggs—two % 


ees AR Sage 
EEA EE ee tar ee ae an ET A oS ae Se ed PURER S eek Nias See ag | 


= 


_ 


GAME FALCON. , l 269 


which are now in my cabinet. The eggs must have been sat upon 
several days; hence this was a full set. ‚Samuels collected one 
set of four in Maine, and says in his ornithology “I am inclined 
to think from what I can learn from collectors and others, that 
four is the usual number laid by this bird.” It is asserted by 
Audubon and others that the sparrow hawk raises two broods in 
a season in, the southern states. Not having any personal 
knowledge of the fact, I wrote to my friend, Dr. S. W. Wilson, 
of Georgia, who is an experienced ornithologist and oologist, rel- 
ative to this point. He says, that “the assertion of naturalists 
that birds south raise more than a single brood in the same season 
is certainly not applicable to the rapacious birds ;” and ‘again 
he says, “This is my experience after many observations, that 
none of the hawks and allied -birds breed more than once during 
the same season,” they begin nesting in Florida in February ; in 
the middle states, in April; in Connecticut, in the latter part of 
April and the early part of May; in Maine, in May and June. 
A lad brought. me a female sparrow hawk, April 26, 1871, which 
he shot on an old dead tree where he had seen it for several days. 
I inquired if he looked for a nest. ‘‘ Yes,” he replied, “ I looked the 
tree all over and saw no nest on it.” I told him to examine the 


_ holes in the tree. He returned the next day with two fresh eggs 


of this hawk. The set was incomplete but would have been full 
by the 1st of May. There is as much uncertainty about the age 
when this bird arrives at adult plumage as there is about the 
pigeon hawk’s age— probably, three or more years. I do not 
know whether they nest before arriving at adult plumage. The 
hawk taken here with eggs, and the pair from Granby with eggs, 


_Were adult birds; these are the only specimens that I have re- 


ceived that I knew positively had nested. 

Length, 10 to 12 inches—alar extent, 19 to 23 inches. 

“ Adult: Frontal band and space including the eyes and throat, 
white, spot on the neck behind, two others on each side of the 
neck, and line running downwards from before the eye, black. 
Spot on the top of the head, the neck behind, black; rump and 
tail light rufous or cinnamon color. Under parts generally a paler 
shade of the same rufous as the back, frequently nearly white, but 
Sometimes as dark as the upper parts, and always with more or 
less numerous circular or oblong spots of black. Quills brownish 
black, with white bars on their inner webs. Tail tipped with 


t 
X 


270  NATURE’S MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS OF INSECTS. 


white, frequently tinged with rufous and with a broad subterminal 


band of black, outer frequently white, tinged with ashy and 


barred with black. Bill light blue, legs yellow. Back generally 
with transverse stripes of black, but frequently with very few or 
entirely “without ; rufous spot on the head, variable in size, and 
sometimes wanting. 1 ; 

Younger male: Upper parts as above; wing coverts and tail > 
ferrugineous red, with numerous transverse bands of brownish , 
black. Under parts with numerous longitudinal stripes, and on 
the sides with transverse bands of brownish black, external 
feathers of the tail palest, broad subterminal band on the tail ob- 
scure or wanting. 

Young: All the rufous parts of the plumage with wider trans- — 
verse bands of brownish black ; wing coverts dark bluish cinere- 
ous, with large circular spots of black; under parts with — 
longitudinal stripes, and large circular spots of black.” 


NATURE'S MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS 
OF INSECTS. : 


BY A. 8. PACKARD, JR. 
A rew hints regarding the natural enemies of our injurious in- n 
sects are here thrown together in order to call the attention of a 
our naturalists and agriculturists to the subject, and provoke 
inquiries during the coming summer. There is no more int 
esting subject to our entomologists and ornithologists, than e 
relations between birds and insects, while the subject of rearing by Lo 
the wholesale ichneumon and Tachina flies is of vital importance : 
to agriculture. E 
In the first place I desire to correct a false impression I may 
have conveyed in my last entomological report to the Mane = 
chusetts Board of Agriculture regarding the relation of birds w : 
the canker worm. I there remark that “it would seem as if ~ 
birds did not feed upon it to much extent.” Wishing to examin? 
into the matter more closely, I have in lack of observations of MY 


NATURE’S MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS OF INSECTS. 271 


own, availed myself of the knowledge of some of our ornithol- 
ogists. 

I am indebted to Mr. C. J. Maynard of Ipswich for the fol- 
lowing information upon the birds which devour the canker worm. 
He informs me that in the course of his investigations he has 
opened the stomachs of some three thousand birds. 


“In answer to your questions relative tu birds eating canker 
worms and the larve of other injurious insects I would say that 
upon examining my notes, I find that I have taken canker worms 
from the stomachs of the following species :—red-eyed vireo 
(Vireo olivaceus), song sparrow (Melospiza melodia), chickadee 

Parus atricapillus), scarlet tanager (Pyranga ru 
(Turdus migratorius), black billed cuckoo (Coccygus erythroph- 
thalmus), wood pewee (Contopus vireus), least pewee (Empidonan 


(Seiurus aurocapillus), chestnut-sided warbler ndroica Pensyl- 
vanica), yellow warbler (D. œstiva), black and yellow warbler 
. discolor), black-polled war- 


t he t ‘ e f 
above species which I have shot at this time have their stomachs 
crammed with insects of some kind 


he other evening the Baltimore oriole , 


I ked to you t ) c 
_ Will eat largely of the tent caterpillar, and is the only bird which 
will do this. 

All the thrushes will eat wire worms. The swallows destroy 
multitudes of dipterous insects (gnats, etc.). In fact to sum the 
matter up there is scarcely a bird which will not eat largely of 
insects at certain seasons, when these pests are most abundant. 

t is a noticeable fact that many species inhabiting w 
meadows, as may be seen by the list given, leave their usual haunts 


- 


and visit the fruit trees which are covered with canker worms » 


and largely devour them. 


272 NATURE’S MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS OF INSECTS. 


In reference to the currant saw fly worm (Nematus ventricosus) e 
I am not certain that I have seen any birds eat them, yet I think ~ 
the truly insectivorous species will do this.” 


That the Baltimore oriole sometimes eats large quantities of the : 
American tent caterpillar (Clisiocampa Americana), since they — 
have been found in the stomach of this bird by Mr. Maynard, 
is an interesting fact, for birds as a rule do not relish hairy — 
caterpillars, and the American tent caterpillar is covered with long _ 
hairs, though they are not so dense as in some other larve. In 
Europe the closely allied tent caterpillar (C. newstria), and those — 
of the Cnethocampa and Liparis chrysorrheea are said by Perris — 
and others to be almost untouched by birds. I have been told by — 
Dr. T. M. Brewer of Boston that the English sparrows upon the | 
common devoured all the caterpillars of the tussock moth (Orgyia) 
which were injuring a fine tree. These caterpillars are very — 
hairy, being adorned with pencils and tufts of long hairs. ga 

i Mt. John H. Sears, of Danvers, Mass., who has paid much 
attention to the habits-of our birds, informs me that the cuckoo, 
which breeds near houses, is an exceedingly useful bird, as it de = 
-vours the canker worms in large numbers. It is well that thie 
should be known, as there is a popular prejudice against this bird, 
from its habit of sucking the eggs, as well as laying its eggs ™ 
the nests, of other birds. Among the birds which he has cs 
self observed in the act of eating canker worms, are the king bird, 
the Baltimore oriole, the cat bird, the common flycatcher, We 
least flycatcher’or wood pewee, the red eyed vireo and a few — 
other small birds, such as certain warblers and flycatchers. The 
king bird in the month of May feeds on May beetles, as stated bY 
Mr. J. L. Hersey, in this journal. e 

I also quote from a letter on the subject, for which I am indeb 
to Dr. T. M. Brewer:— _ 

“The most noticeable of all the destroyers of the canker sin 
is the common cedar bird, which devours them to an extent per 
fectly enormous. Next is the purple grakle which also feeds 


Ẹ 


far as they go, are the chipping sparrow, the song sparrow: 5 
purplé finch, all the vireos, white-eyed, red-eyed, yellow-throa™ 
solitary and warbling, the king bird, the cat bird, the downy 


~. 


NATURE’S MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS OF INSECTS. 273 


pecker the summer yellow bird, Maryland yellow throat, -the 
blue-bird. The bluejay eat their eggs in the winter, so does the 


chickadee. The latter eats their grub also and the worm too. 


The on gray creeper, which is with us only in the winter, 
eats the e 

Last enek I had a nest of golden-winged woodpeckers breed- 
‘ing on my place at Hingham. Some of them dug into my barn and 
passed the winter. Only a part of. my trees were protected b a 


this winter very few grubs have as yet shown themselyes, an 
give my friend Colaptes auratus the credit of all this. I know 


_ this—I gave the young ones a lot of the worms myself and they — 


eat them as if they were used to them. The old birds were too 
shy to permit me to see by their good deeds. 

I think the golden robin feeds its young with them so long as 
they last, but I am not sure that they eat the tent caterpillar. I 
nearly forgot the two cuckoos, yellow-bill and black-bill. a 
eat every form of caterpillar, canker worms included. do 
think the robin feeds any to its young, because it would never des ; 
they are too small and its brood want a big lot. I have known 
the robin to feed its young for moga gs das as fast as they could 
bring them, with the moth of the cut-worm. That is about as 


_Tnuch as we could expect of any bird 4 do at one time. At the 


rate they went, they must have caught and given their young ones 
about five hundred of these moths ina day. Before that, I had 
supposed the robin did me more harm than good, but I had to give 
in. My indebtedness to that pair was worth all the cherries I could 
raise in many years. So the robin and I are fast friends.” 


From the facts already presented, it may be inferred bow useful 
birds may become in the work of reducing the number of injuri- 
ous insects. Undoubtedly we have suffered greatly by our wanton 


- killing of the smaller birds. We are far behind European na- 


tions in caring for the insect-eating birds, and providing nests 
for them about our houses and gardens. The Swiss and French, 
have been the most far-sighted in this matter of the protection of 
the smaller insectivorous species. ‘The English, Scandinavians and 
Germans foster them, while in our country, teeming as it is with 
hosts of ravaging insects, the smaller birds are hunted and perse- 
cuted, or if let alone, there is no effort made on any extended scale 
to invite them to our houses and gardens. ` 

In this connection I may re fer to the barbarous and thoughtléss 
Custom of our young men, in the autumn, organizing in companies 
and shooting small quadrupeds and birds. These hunting parties 
destroy large numbers of raccoons, sai skunks, mink, weasels. 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VII. 


. \ t 


274 NATURE’S MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS OF INSECTS. 


and squirrels. It is well known that the skunk, if not an entirely 
inoffensive animal, is exceedingly useful. Its food consists mainly 
of insects, and those among the most injurious, such as the May ` 
beetle or dorbug. „Mink and weasels eat insects, and squirrels as 
I am told, besides eating nuts, will in times of hunger eat the 
chrysalides of insects. It is known that all the smaller oe 
peds, even the fox, will eat insects when other food is wanting. — 
It is said that little harm results from shooting birds in antun 
as the breeding season is over, and the birds are migrating south- 
ward, but in the southern states they will prove as useful to agri- 
culture there during their long winter residence, and it is a selfish 
policy that would injure the prosperity of farmers in one section 
of the country, merely. to afford a day’s barbarous pleasure l 
the inhabitants of another. Those birds which are shot in consid- 
erable numbers at such times, as’ partridges and quail, are inset- : 
tivorous as well as vegetarians, and of late years the quail has 
been known to render essential service in Cones ra Colorado 
potato beetle. 
In fact this indiscriminate slaughter of small queda and i 
birds tends to destroy the balance of nature. That there is a law 
of equilibrium in the distribution of the. numbers of animals may : 
be seen on à moment’s examination of well known facts. The 
codfish is. known to lay several hundreds of thousands of eggs 
and yet such is the destruction of life, that few of the eggs | 
left untouched by other animals; and of the young that hatch 
may be safely said that only a pair of adult fish remain. 
two eggs of the original hundreds of thousands result in 
plishing the end for which so many were laid. So among the i 
sects. The queen bee is known sometimes to lay during her W 
life more than a million eggs; during the height of the breee 
season, under the most favorable circumstances, laying from 
- thousand to three thousand eggs, and yet how slight is the mem 
in the numbers of the honey bee. It would be an interesting : 
to trace out the causes that cut short the lives of so many 
Then look at the aphides or plant lice, with their anomalous Y 
reproduction, by which the young are produced like the buds 
tree. One virgin plant louse was found by Bonnet to bring 
on an average about one hundred young, and so on for ten 8° 
tions : now D opi the mamus of young PEP by titose 0f i 
ten broods „and w 1,000, OU, UY 


+ 


. 


U HAYO ULIG 


NATURE'S MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS OF INSECTS. 275 . 


or a quintillion young—all descendants of one spinster plant 
‘louse. Says Professor Huxley in commenting on this fact, “I will 
assume that an aphis weighs oyp of a grain, which is under the 
mark. A quintillion will on this estimate weigh a quadrillion of 
grains. He is a very stout man who weighs 2,000,000 grains; 
consequently the tenth brood alone, if all the members survive the 
perils to which they are exposed, contains more substance than 
500,000,000 stout men, to say the ais more than the whole pop- 
ulation of China.” , 

When we realize that so far from a quintillion, only a pair or 
two of plant lice survive, and at the end of the season die, after 
laying a few eggs, by which ‘the species is represented in winter, 
we can form some idea of the struggle for existence among an- 
imals, and of the vicissitudes to which they are exposed. We can 
see how delicate is the balance of circumstances by which nature ` 
preserves the equilibrium, seeking, as it were, on the one hand to 
prevent the extinction of the Ni and on the other its undue 
Pe oeHestion. 

Now birds are an important agency in restraining the increase 
_of species injurious to man. Yet this aid is blind and impartial. 
They devour useful as well as injurious insects. They sometimes 
eat our fruits, even if they overbalance the mischief by a strict 
adherence to insect diet out of the short fruit season. It follows 
that we must depend more upon an intimate knowledge of the 
habits of the birds themselves. 

M. Perris in an admirable paper in the ‘‘ Mémoires de la So- 
ciété Royale des Science de Liége” (tome iii, 1873) entitled “ Les 
Oiseaux et les Insectes” says: 

“Almost all oe probably even the whole of them, eat insects. 
Eyen the birds of prey, when they are an hungered, accept this 
makeshift, as do gue according to M. Florent Prévost, the wolf, 
the fox and the badger, when they have not been fortunate in the 
chase. There are some birds, such as the swallows, the martins, 
the goatsuckers, which live exclusively on insects; others, as the 
nightingale, the warblers and all the birds with small beaks, which 
habitually consume insects, and only change their habits at the 
atter end of autumn, then eating berries, figs, etc. ; others such 
as the chaffinch, the goldfinch, the sparrow, which in rearing their 
young prefer insects to grain, and which for the rest of the time, 
prefer grain to insects. Still others, for example the magpie, are 
omnivorous: insects, worms, larve, grains, fruits, small birds, 
- Small Ghickens; all are welcomes Finally, not to prolong this 


` 


276  NATURE’S MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS OF INSECTS. 


enumeration, for we should never finish if we mentioned all, the A 
rapacious birds, such as the screech owl, the buzzard, the kite, — 
more accustomed to live on flesh, are sometimes forced to content 


tend and complete, it follows from the great number of birds that — ; 
there is daily an immense destruction of insects. It is not by 
thousands only, but by hundreds of thousands, by millions, a+ 
cording to the area embraced, that we should count in fine weather G 
` and from one sunny day to another, the number of victims: The — 

imagination shrinks at the idea of the total to which we should : — 
reach at the end of a.year.” hte ie 

Mr. Perris then says, the main question is, How many of the in- — | 
sects thus eaten are injurious? We will quote our author’s conclu a 
sions, though we think that in desiring to show that the protection — 
and culture of birds are not the only way to prevent the attacks 7 
of injurious insects, as many of his countrymen think, he 1s 
little disposed to underrate on his side their importance, which is l 
felt in this country especially, in dealing with injurious caterpi- 
lars, such as the tent caterpillar,canker worm and the bud worm 
(Penthina oculana) of the apple and'thé pear, which would other: 
wise annihilate our apple and pear crop, as they almost threaten 
to do now. Remarks M. Perris :— 


1, “ Birds are only united in troops more or less considerable : 
the times of migration of autumn and spring, that is to say when 
most insects are infinitely less numerous than during the summi 
The rest of the time, they live ordinarily in couples apart 
themselves, quite rare in cultivated grounds, while the ince 
vade en masse the trees they wish to attack, the crops of Wie 
they are the enemies. : ve 

2. “ Birds destroy insects enormously, but these insects até à 


not serve particularly our interests; they even injure us, MANJ 
them devouring our fruits as well as seeds either planted here 
soil, or harvested, and especially in suppressing the carnlv 

parasitic kinds which render us great service. ok 
8. “The insects of which we have the most to complain are i 
large enough to defy the birds, or (and these are the most 1" pee 
able) too small to draw their attention; some of them tasi? | 
badly to excite their appetite; many are nocturnal and 
day, with that instinct of self-preservation which is’ as M 
veloped i i 


in them as in the larger animals ; or, living inactive, 


NATURE’S MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS OF INSECTS. 277 


do not reveal themselves to the eye of the bird, which perceives 
more easily and follows more willingly the insects which fly or 
in homes of 


persevering care, cannot even in a small farm, rid himself of them, 
nor often even free his house of them, not even a portion of i 
. ‘‘The grubs and caterpillars, which are more especially the au- 
thors of the damages, live almost T concealed under the soil, 
under bark, deep in the road, in the stems of plants, in fruits, in 
- inhabited placės, under silken nets, asd only pay the birds a very 
feeble tribute. Those which are developed in the open air are 
generally hairy, which repels birds ; certain of them are noctur 
and ae tine before day ; others are protected by their excessive 
smallne 
a, in another place enumerates other useful animals, and his 
remarks will apply in the main to this country :— 
“There are among the mammalia, the moles, which without 
afais do some mischief in covering our fields with mole hills 
. but they benefit us by destroying many insects and injurious 


Be nocturnal.” 

He also enumerates certain birds, and the larger number of the 
reptiles, adders, the blind worm, lizards, frogs, rennets, toad and . 
urtle. The toads are of especial value as their only diet appears 
to be flies and grasshoppers and other insects. These animals are 
extremely sedentary. Wherever they find a supply of insects 
there they will remain for weeks at a time, as long as the supply 
lasts. On Penikese island, some of the students of the Anderson 
School of Natural History discovered that the stomachs of the num- 
erous toads there were filled with young grasshoppers, and that 
- they even hopped down to the shore and fed upon the beach-fleas 
which live under sea-weed between tide-marks. Toads are doubt- 
less of use in devouring canker worms, as they abound under apple 
trees infested by them, and probably devour large quantities when 
the worms descend in June to the earth in order to undergo their 
transformation into the chrysalid state. It would ‘be worth while 
to collect them in large numbers and place them in gardens and 
orchards, as once deposited there, they will remain. 

Before I leave this subject of the agency of birds and other 
vertebrate animals in maintaining this equilibrium in the numbers 


: oe selves in the same manner in warrin ainst other Scolyti- 
-larvee or grubs of Plegaderus discisus destroy the young of | 


‘will form such a minimum as will be quite unimportant. 


. We have seen how wonderfully fertile is the plant louse, 


‘still more surely and effectually perform the work of destruction. 
ing 


stenographus) lays its eggs under the bark, the Platysom 


278 NATURE’S MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS OF INSECTS. 


of injurious and beneficial insects, I would urge the importan 
a carefully conducted series of observations by some of our 
tical ornithologists and entomologists working in conjunctio 
From May until October one or several. specimens of our mo 
common insectivorous birds, as well as those occasionally 


and a list made of the species of insects found in their stom 
the number of specimens, with other remarks. From the data 
collected we shall be able to form an intelligent opinion as to the” 
vexed question, how far the birds devour indiscriminately inju- 
rious and beneficial insects; and I venture to predict that it will A 
be found that the number of ichneumon and other beneficial kinds 


By far the most important agency in nature, and one almost in- 
calculable in its effects, is the warfare of insects upon each other. 


it may not lay an egg. Now the immense powers of multip a 
tion of individuals in this and all other insects are held in check by 
carnivorous insects. One-half of the insects make war upon the : 
other half. Insects attack one another in various ways, either by 
the stronger directly devouring the weaker; or as parasites they 


Among the external though less known enemies belonging © 
the order of beetles, which Perris enumerates from his exten® 
observations on their habits, are a large number which live under 
the bark of trees. I quote his accounts of them, premising ™ 
we have similar insects with like habits in this country; amd 
though the list of scientific names seems formidable, yet there ' 
no common names for them. I use nearly bis own words, with 
occasional interpolations of English names. 


“ When one of the Scolytids injurious to pines (the p Oe 
b pee 

gum introduces itself by the hole which has given entrance to the 

first insect, it lays its eggs in the gallery of the Bostt 


. ee those eggs are born the carnivorous larve which devol 


of the wood-eating beetles. Other beetles conduct 


X 


3 


£ 


i 


NATURE’S MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS OF INSECTS. 279 


rarna preys upon the Bostrichus of the larch; Colydium Dae 


Arpi piniper da and B. minor, Læmophlæus hyperbor 
Hyperborus ficus, Hypophleus pini on Bostrichus ei abv ‘i 
finally Hypophleus linearis on Bostrichus bidens. ho will not 
be struck by these antagonisms? Who will not admire this infal- 
libility of instinct which causes these insects to discover the t 
attacked, and perceive, among ‘the species which ‘the tree conceals, 
the victim which has been assigned to them?’ 

“ Other beetles exhibit the same sagacity. The larve of several 
Elaterids (wire worms) and those of Clerus mutillarius and formi- 
carius make war on those of some longicorn beetles of the oak 
the elm, alder bush and the pine. The Opilus mollis and domesticus 
are the enemies of the borers which mine our floors and ceilings ; ; 
the Cylidrus albofasciatus and the Tilus uni fasciatus prey on Sy- 
noxylon sexdentatum and on Xylopertha sea which seek the dis- 
eased branches of the vine, and those of several trees; the 
Tarsostenus univittatus attacks the Lyctus nelodlanie, injuring 
our timber works ; while the Trogosita Mauritanica destroys the 
grain moth.” , : 


We would also add among other efficient laborers in the cause of 
agriculture the lady birds, lace-winged flies, Syrphus flies and 
numerous wasps. But the true parasites, the ichneumon and 
Tachina flies, those which live within the bodies of vegetable-eat- 
ing insects, these are the aids which beyond all other influences 
keep in check the noxious kinds. It may be said that each sort 
of caterpillar has its peculiar ichneumon parasite, and some are 

own to have several. Here we have an engine of destruction 
which man can in some measure direct. We have seen that birds 
eat friend and foe indiscriminately. | The great practical question 
in applied entomology is how can man breed and disseminate these 
insects, and use them as most potent instruments of warfare against 


- insect depredators. This question has been satisfactorily settled 


for the first time by Dr. W. LeBaron, the State Entomologist of 
Illinois. So important and suggestive are his remarks that I 
quote the whole chapter on ‘‘ The transportation of useful parasitic 
Insects” from his able report for 1873, as it deserves the widest 
dissemination among g thinking agriculturists. 


“ The idea of ipa the useful arpa ots and of t 
porting them, when necessary, from one part of the cott To 
another, has often ataino itself to practical entomologists, and 
was a favorite topic of speculation of my predecessor in office, 

D. Walsh. But the very small size of most of these insects, many 


x 


Ł 


being known, partly by the presence of the little I ag: bene 
jar 


account that probably less than a dozen of these larva W 
ported to 


280 NATURE’S MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS OF INSECTS. 


of them, indeed, Pog! Ai minute that they cannot easily wa seen 
without the aid of al and the constant difficulty of manipu- 
lating them have ae Wei a somewhat chimerical aspect to 
the suggestion, and have caused it to be regarded as more ingen- 
ious than practicab 

“In the course of our coho eet? of the oyster-shell b 


their destruction. 
this state where the examinations were aie. that more than 
of the bark lice had been destroyed by this parasite, its operations | 


through which the chaicis flies had escaped. It was also found, by — 
examining the scale, late in the fall, that one brood of, the ones : 
des hibernated in the larva state beneath the scales. The a 
therefore, readily occurred that this was a very favo rab ally 
tunity for testing the practicability of igre pale nde frien F 
parasites to those parts of the country in which their presence 
cannot now be detected, We had previously reod several pac: of 
ages of apple twigs from different localities in the northern part 0 

Illinois and the southern part of Wisconsin, heayily infested wt 


“Captain Edward H. Beebe, of Galena, who had been passing 
winter in Geneva, and who had taken a lively interest in ria 
vestigation, undertook to conduct this nag Bag ote eee 

ena, 


orchards, im 
= of rr which were known to be or infested. by ! 


bark 


“When we consider the minute size of these insects, the ily 
matured fly (Fig. 72) being only one twenty-fifth of an m 


veals the operation of the chalcis is so minute that it 
seen by the aid of a magnifying glass; and we Arthar | 


) the new locality, and that the small number 0 of 


, 


NATURE’S MEANS OF LIMITING THE NUMBERS OF INSECTS. 281 


flies proceeding from these were let loose in three per con- 


Fig. 72. 


oe of the Apple Scale Insect, 


of determining the presence of the chaleides. Even if the exper- | 
iment should prove ultimately successful, it would be very doubtful 

‘Whether the chalcis marks would be sufficiently numerous to be 
__ detected at the close of the first year, but oe this they would be 

likely to multiply in a rapidly ine creasing ra 

“ About the last of May, 1872, ao is, Pel the intervention of 
- One year from the time of commencing this experiment, Capt. 

eebe examined some of the trees to which the chalcis twigs had 
been attached, and after a careful search thought that he had dis- 
_ covered a few traces of the o opera ations of the chalcides, and sent 


ear ee On the 13th of sul, I visited Galena and, in com- 
otk with Capt. Beebe, submitted one of the- trees, to which the 
greatest number of the twigs had Peen attached, to a thorough- 
examination. 

“The result, if not actually conclusive, was at least extremely 
encouraging, e detected a considerable number of holes in the 
scales, which ations to be identical, invevery respect, with those 
made by the chalcis in question, and in one instance we discovered 
inche of these holes upon the same twig, within a space of four 
inches. 

“In conducting an experiment of sodelicate a nature I am well 
aware that the greatest caution must be exercised to avoid jumping 
to hasty conclusions, and that the observations of a number 
Succeeding years will be necessary before we can arrive at a defi. 
nite conclusion that the spa ent has been followed by a prac- 
tical a: s well as scientific succes 


we concluded with the following remark : Trei absence of the 
Chalcis of the bark louse, in this locality, will furnish an excellent 
Opportunity for testing the practicability of transporting it thither 


282 SWAINSON’S BUZZARD. 


from those places where it is known to exist. If, after taking the 
preliminary steps, as described in a former part of this article, we 
should find, after the lapse of the necessary time, upon the trees” 


mark the exit of the chalcis, we should know that the friend 
parasite had entered upon its work. If such an experiment could 
be conducted to a successful issue, it would furnish one of the 
most admirable instances on record, of the triumph of science, in 


be 


its application to economic entomology.’” 


In like manner the Hessian fly and wheat midge could, we 
believe, be kept within legitimate bounds, by the transportation 
from Europe of the parasites that in England and France are 
known to reduce their numbers materially. It would be an easy 
task to cause several bags of stubble containing the 
of these parasites to be sent over to this country, and reared. | 
here. So also the dreaded cabbage butterfly, our last, European — 
importation, can in new districts be kept under by transporting: 
the Pteromalus or chalcis parasite, which in Essex county, Massy 
is quite abundant. This rearing of ichneumon parasites can be 
carried on by intelligent gardeners and farmers in conjunction 
with an entomologist, and we look upon the future of ichneumon 
culture as one of the departments of a scientific, intelligent agri- 
culture. Something should be done in the matter by the nati 
department of agriculture, and instead of disseminating frig 
fully injurious insects in the seeds distributed from Washington, 
as is sometimes done through carelessness, it would be less harm- 
ful to scatter broadcast papers of ichneumon seed. 


HABITS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF SWAINSON’S 
: BUZZARD. | 


BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES, U. 8. A. 


' 1873, Excepting an occasional rough-leg or red-tail, it was th 
ily buteonine® species observed, and the only haw 
a mon were the ubiquitous marsh harriers and sparrow-haw 


Bachan ği 


. 


~ 


SWAINSON’S BUZZARD. ni 283 


The species is thoroughly distinct from its nearest ally, B. bore- 
alis; it never gains the red tail, so characteristic of the latter, and 
differs in other points of coloration in its several stages of plu- 
mage, as noted beyond. Although its linear dimensions inter- 
grade with those of the red-tail, it is not so heavy nor so large a 
bird, and its shape differs in some points. A tangible and very 
convenient distinction, to which my attention was first called by 

r. Ridgway, and which I have verified in numerous instances, is 
found in the emargination of the primaries. As stated in my late 
work (Key N. A. Birds, p. 217), Swainson’s buzzard has only 
three emarginate primaries, while the red-tail has four; the fourth 
quill of the former, like the fifth of the latter, is variously sinuate- 
tapering, but never shows the decided nick or emargination of the 


The following measurements, taken in the flesh, illustrate the 
sexual difference and other variations in size: Largest adult Q 22 
inches long, 54 in extent, the wing 16; other females respectively 
21°50 51°75 K 16:25. . . 21°00 53°00 XK15°75. . . . 20°50 51° 
0015-25. . . 19:00 49-00 13:50; but this last one was an 
ungrown young. Adult ¢ 19-00 to 20-00 long, by about 49-00 


at spread of wing, the latter 15°00 and a little more. In bot 


sexes, and at all ages, the eye is brown, but of varying shade—I 
have seen no approach to a yellowiris. In the old birds the feet, 
together with the cere, gape, and base of under mandible are rich 


‘chrome yellow; the rest of the bill, and the claws, being bluish 


black. In the young of the year these yellow parts are much 
duller—grayish-yellow, or yellowish clay-color. Most of the old 
birds I have skinned had the integument of the lower belly largely 
bare, yellowish in color, hardened and thickened with warty ex- 
crescences ; this disease seemed the rule rather than the exception. 

nfledged nestlings are covered with white fluffy down ; the first 
feathers to appear on the under parts show the characteristic color 
and markings of the formerly supposed species, “ B.Bairdii.” 
(The various plumages are given beyond.) ° A moult occurs in 
August and September; it is protracted, the feathers being very 
gradually renewed, almost one by one; the fresh heavily colored 
feathers contrasting strongly with the ragged and faded ones 
worn during th summer. The young have no moult at this 
season, carrying aia plumage in which they leave the nest into 


the winter. I have no observations upon a spring moult which 


` 


284 SWAINSON’S BUZZARD. 


probably occurs to both old and young. I took no specimens in 
the:melanistic state of plumage in which the bird has been de 
scribed as another supposed species—B. insignatus; and only saw 
one in which the entire under parts looked as dark, when the bird — 
was sailing over me, as the pectoral band of the adults is. This 
dark plumage appears to be an individual peculiarity, not & 
normal stage of regular occurrence. 4 
Swainson’s buzzard may be seen anywhere in the region mene , 
tioned—even far out on the prairie, miles away from timber, cir- a 
cling over head, or perched on the bare ground. In alighting, it 
generally takes adyantage of some little knoll commanding & 
view around, though it often has no more prominent place than 
the cart-load of dirt from a badgers hole, from which to cast 
about for some imprudent gopher* espied too far from home, e 
still more ignoble game. But the bird prefers timber, and, espè- 
cially as its nesting is confined to trees, it is most frequently 0b- 

served in the vicinity of the few wooded streams that diversify 
the boundless prairie. In northern Dakota such streams cut their : 
tortuous way pretty deeply into the ground, and the sharp edges 
of the banks, rising steep on one side and on the other stretching 
away on a continuous level, are favorite resting spots, where 
sometimes a line of several birds may be observed strung along & : 
distance of a few yards. The Souris or Mouse River, & stream of 
this description, is a favorite resort, where I found the birds mo 
numerous than anywhere else. Much of the river bottom Is well 
wooded with elm, oak and other large trees ; and the number of 
nests found in this timber—sometimes several in sight of Ee 
` other— would be considered surprising by one not recollecting 
that conveniences for breeding are in this country practically 
limited to such narrow tracts. 
The nests are built at varying heights, from the int 

` heavy shrubbery where a man may reach them from the gro” 
to the tops of the tallest trees. They are generally, howevely 
placed thirty or forty feet high, in some stout crotch or.on & 
zontal fork. They are bulky and ragged looking structures; gi 
the size of sticks used for the base and outside; the interior 
composed of smaller twigs more compactly arranged. Thee 


ricacies ¢ 


+“ Gopher”: Frontier vernacular name for all the ground-squirrels (Si ched at 
i Pura AE ES t kind here. The pouor] 


are known as “ pocket-gophers,” 


~ 


SWAINSON’S BUZZARD. 285. 


varies with the requirements of the location, being more or less 
conical in an upright crotch, flatter on a fork. The interior hol- 
lowing is slight. An average external diameter may be given as 
two feet, and depth half as much. I was too late for eggs in 
the locality above mentioned ; the only nest I found with anything 
in it contained two half-fledged young. This was on the 15th of 
August—so late as to induce the belief that perhaps two broods 
may be reared in a season, especially as before this date I had ob- 
served many full grown yearlings onthe wing. ‘This nest built 
about forty feet high, in an oak tree, was very untidy, matted in- 
side with excrement and the scurfy exfoliation from the growing 
feathers of the youngsters, and encumbered with portions of sev- 
eral gophers. The nestlings were too young to make any resist- 
ance beyond a menacing hiss and a very mixed flapping when 
they were unceremoniously pitched out. The mother was sho 

near the nest with a pistol-ball, but her partner kept prudently 
out of the way. This bird had not reached her mature plumage. 
The young had been well cared for; their crops were full of go- 
pher-meat at the time, and they were very fat. 

In July, I had a live young one in captivity, at about the age 
of these two ; and early in August, I possessed a completely feath- 
ered and full grown bird of the year, probably hatched in May. 
This shows that either two broods are reared, or that the laying 
Season runs through most of the summer. This grown young one 
made rather an acceptable capture for some days, as he was trim 
and shapely, with a fine eye and general military bearing, as well . 
as an excellent appetite. But then he was bad-tempered, took the 
most civil advances unkindly, and would not even fraternize with 
a pair of very well disposed and sensible owls that were picketed 
with him. At last, when he so totally failed to appreciate his po- 
sition as to use his claws with painful effect, he was summarily ex- 
ecuted. Both this and the younger one before him had a peculiarly 
plaintive whistle to signify hunger or a sense of loneliness, a note 
that was almost musical in intonation. This was the only cry I 


heard from them; the old birds have the harsh loud scream, much 


alike in all our large hawks. r, 
The quarry of Swainson’s buzzard is of a very humble nature. 


-I never saw one stoop upon a wild-fowl or grouse, and though they 


probably strike rabbits, like the red-tails, their prey is ordinarily 
nothing larger than gophers. Though really strong and sufficiently 


286 SWAINSON’S BUZZARD. 


fierce birds, they lack the “snap” of the falcons and asturs; and 
I scarcely think they are smart enough to catch birds very often. 
I saw one make the attempt on a lark-bunting. The hawk poised 
in the air, at a height of about twenty yards, for fully a minut 
fell heavily with an awkward thrust of the talons—and missed 
the little bird slipped off badly scared no doubt, but unhurt, while 
the enemy flapped away sulkily, very likely to prowl around 
gopher-hole for his dinner, or take potluck at grasshoppers. 
procure gophers, mice and other small quadrupeds both by waitin 
patiently at the mouth of the holes, ready to claw out the unlucky 
- animals the moment they show their noses, and by sailing low ovi 
the ground to pick up such as they may find away from home 
But I question whether, after all, insects do not furnish their prin- 
cipal subsistence. Those that I shot after midsummer all had 
their craws stuffed with grasshoppers. These insects, which appe 
sometimes in almost inconceivable numbers, seem to be the nat- 
ural source of supply for a variety of animals. Wolves, foxes, 
badgers, and even the rodents, like gophers, supposed vegetarians 
come down to them. Sandhill cranes stalk over the prairie t0 
spear them by thousands. Wild-fowl waddle out of the r x 
pools to scoop them up; we may kill scores of sharp-tailed g 
in September, to find in every one of them a mass of grasshop, 
only leavened with a few grubs, beetles leaves, berries and 


tumn, and lazy withal. Unaccustomed to the presence of man in ; 
these regions, they may be approached with little difficult 
they perch on the trees, and often fly unwittingly within short 
When brought down winged they show no lack of spirit, and H 
be prudently dealt with, as their talons are very effective weapons 
nce, 


Changes of plumage with age affect more particularly the under pat 


ate | 


SWAINSON’S BUZZARD. 287 


‘ Under parts, including lining of wings, nearly uniform fawn-color (pale 
Sip SRPS brown), thickly and sharply marked with blackish-brown. 

se large dark spots, for the most part circular or guttiform, crowd 
across thè fore breast, scatter on the middle belly, enlarge to cross-bars 


wanting 
Gii pencilling along the PARE line. Quills brownish-black, the 
outer webs with an ashy shade, the inner webs tow pio the base grayish, 


pale 

their. shafts black on top, nearly white underneath. ay feathers like the 
quills, but more decidedly shaded with ashy or slate gray, and tipped with 
whitish: their numerous dark cross-bars show more plainly than those of 

the SE but are not so evident as they are in the old birds. 
dults (either sex). Upper parts dark brown, very variable in shade 
according to season or wear of the feathers, varied with paler brown, 
i ith e 


upon a lighter marbled-whitish — and the latter having broader 
and sharper dark wavy bars. These large pepe peared those of the 
tail, vary much in shade according to wear, the new feathers being strongly 
slate-colored, the old ones plain dark brown. ab w ANE never 


Male: Under parts showing a broad pectoral area of bright pai 


area contrasting sharply with the pure white throat. Other under nara 
white, aid or less tinged and varied, according to age, with light chest- 
nut. In the oldest males, this chestnut is diminished to traces, net A in 
flank- fant ai arrowheads, and the white throat is immaculate; in less 
mature examples, throat shows blackish pencilling, and the rest = the 
under parts are so o much marked with chestnut, chiefly in cross-bars, that 


n 
feathers, to brownish-black, and other under parts heavily marked with 


chestnut, chiefly in cross-bars alternating with whitish, but on the flanks, | 


and sometimes across the belly, these markings are quite blackish. The 
general tone of the under parts may be quite as dark as the pectoral area 
of the male; but it lacks uniformity, and the increased depth of color of 
the pec toral area in this case’suffices to preserve the strong contrast 
already mentioned. 


hippus Marsh, and are all of diminutive size, hardly larger t 


' in many respects, much more indeed than any other a 
. species, but instead of the single toe on each foot, so characteris! 


FOSSIL HORSES IN AMERICA. 


BY PROFESSOR O. C. MARSH. 
o M d 


Ir is a well known fact that the Spanish discoverers of America 
found no horses on this continent, and that the modern horse — 
(Equus caballus Linn.) was subsequently introduced from the old — 
world. It is, however, not so generally known that these animals — 
had formerly been abundant here, and that long before, in Ter- — 
tiary time, near relatives of the horse, and probably his ancestors, — 
existed in the far west in countless numbers, and in a marvellous a 
variety of forms. The remains of equine mammals, now known — 
from the Tertiary and Quaternary deposits of this country, already : 
represent more than double the number of genera and species: 5 
hitherto found in the strata of the eastern hemisphere, and hence ~ 1 
afford most important aid in tracing out the genealogy of the i 
horses still existing. oe 

The animals of this group which lived in this country during the 3 
three divisions of the Tertiary period were especially numerous in 
the Rocky Mountain regions, and their remains are well preserved 
in the old lake basins which then covered, so much of that country. 7 
The most ancient of these lakes— which extended over a Com- 
siderable part of the'present territories of Wyoming and Utah— ; 
remained so long in Eocene times that the mud and sand, slowly — 
deposited in it, accumulated to more than a mile in vertical thick: 

ess. In these deposits, vast numbers of tropical animals were 
entombed, and here the oldest’ equine remains occur, four species 


of which have been described. These belong to the gan 
f the horse 


fox. The skeleton of these animals resembled that 0 


of all modern equines, the various species of Orohippus had “ 
toes before and three behind, all of which reached the ground. 
The skull, too, was proportionately shorter, and the orbit was N 
enclosed behind by a bridge of bone. There were forty-four 107 
in all, and the premolars were smaller than the molars. - The 
crowns of these teeth were very short. The canine teeth wer 
(288) 


FOSSIL HORSES IN AMERICA. 289 


developed in both sexes, and the incisors did not have the “mark” 
which indicates the age of the modern horse. The radius and 
ulna were separate, and the latter was entire 
throughout its whole length. The tibia and fibula 
were distinct. In the fore foot, all the digits ex- 
cept the pollex, or first, were well developed, as 
shown in the accompanying figure (73) of the left 
fore foot of Orohippus agilis Marsh. The third 
digit is the largest, and its close resemblance to 
that of the horse is clearly marked. The terminal y 
phalanx, or coffin bone, has a shallow median 
groove in front, as in many species of this group x 
in the later Tertiary. The fourth digit exceeds Drok 
the second in size, and the fifth is much the shortest 

of all. Its metacarpal bone is considerably curved outward. In 
the hind foot of this genus, there are but three digits. The fourth 
metatarsal is much larger than the second. ; 

The only species of Orohippus at present known are from the 
Eocene of Wyoming and Utah, and are as follows :—Orohippus 
gracilis Marsh, O. pumilus Marsh, O. agilis Marsh, and O. major 
Marsh.* 

In the middle Tertiary, or Miocene, there were two other lakes 
on either side of the great Eocene basin. The largest of these 
was east of the Rocky Mountains, extending over portions of 
what are now Dakota, Nebraska and Colorado. The clays depos- 
ited in this lake form the “ Mauvaises terres,” or “ Bad lands,” of 
that region, and are well known for their fossil treasures. The 
other Miocene lake was west of the Blue mountains, where eastern 
Oregon now is, but its extent is unknown, as this whole region 
has since been covered with a vast sheet of basalt, a thousand or 
more feet in thickness, and the original lake sediments are only to 
be seen where this lava has been washed away. In both of these 
ancient lake basins, many remains of animals allied to the horse 
are found, showing that during the Miocene this group of mam- 
mals were well represented. 

In the western, or Oregon basin, the genus Miohippus Marsh 
first makes its appearance. It resembles Orohippus of the 
Eocene in its general characters, especially in the shape of the 
skull, number and form of teeth, and separate ulna; but it had 

* American Journal of Science, Vol. vii, p. 247, March, 1874. 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 19 


| Fig. 73. 


N 


y 


5 


290 FOSSIL HORSES IN AMERICA. 


only three toes in the fore foot, as well as behind, and the fibula 
was coossified with the tibia at its lower end. In this genus, all the 
toes reached the ground, as shown in the accom- 
panying figure of the left fore foot of Miohippus 
annectens Marsh, the type species (Fig. 74). In 
the same deposits, the genus Anchitherium Meyer 
occurs, represented by a single species, A. anceps 
arsh. This genus is closely allied to Miohippus, 
but differs in having a deep depression in the skull 
in front of the orbit. The radius and ulna arè 
united, and the outer toes are reduced in size. In 
the eastern basin, Anchitherium Bairdi Leidy is 
abundant, and with it is found a smaller species, — 
A. celer Marsh. The animals of these two genera 
Miohippus are all larger than the species of Orohippus from — 
annectens, . . 
the Eocene, some of them exceeding a sheep in size 
The Miocene species known with certainty are as follows:— 
Miohippus annectens Marsh, Miohippus Condoni (Anchitherium 
Condoni Leidy) and Anchitherium anceps Marsh, from Oregon; 
and A. Bairdi, Leidy, and A. celer Marsh, from the eastern basin. 
During the Pliocene, or later Tertiary, a great development of : 
the horse family took place, and vast numbers of these animals — 
left their remains in the lake deposits of that epoch. The largest ! 
of these lakes had the Rocky Mountains for its western border, 
and extended from Dakota to Texas, its northern part covering 
the bed of the older Miocene basin. Another Pliocene lake, of : 
unknown limits, extended over the older Tertiary strata of eastert 
Oregon, and evidence of still others may be seen in Idaho, Ne- : 
vada and California. In all of these basins, equine remains of i 
various kinds have been found, but the most important localities 
are the region of the Niobrara river east of the mountains, and 
the valley of the John Day river in Oregon. 
The equine genera of the Pliocene which appear oF 
nearly related to their predecessors from older strata are, Anchir : 
pus Leidy, Hipparion Christol, and Protohippus Leidy, all three — 
toed forms, but with the outer digits reduced to much the oa 
proportions- as the posterior hooflets of the modern deer and 0% 
The genus Pliohippus Marsh, from the same deposits, had ` 
like those of the recent horse. Other genera, less known, 
have been proposed, are Parahippus, Merychippus, and H; 


5 


Fig. 74. 


FOSSIL HORSES IN AMERICA. 291 


of Leidy, to whose researches we are so largely indebted for 
our present knowledge of this group. Of these Pliocene genera, 
more than twenty species have been described from American 
strata, all apparently larger than their Miocene relatives, but all 
smaller than the present horse, and many of them approaching 
the ass in size. Among the more characteristic of these species 
may be mentioned, Anchippus Texanus Leidy, from Texas; A. 
brevidens Marsh, from Oregon; Hipparion occidentale Leidy, and 
H. speciosum Leidy, from Nebraska; Protohippus perditus Leidy, 
from the Niobrara; P. parvulus Marsh, from Nebraska, the 
smallest Pliocene species; Parahippus cognatus Leidy, and Plio- 
hippus pernix Marsh, from the Niobrara. 

In the upper Pliocene, or more probably in the transition beds 
above, there first appears a true Equus, and in the Quaternary de- 
posits, remains of this genus are not uncommon. Five or six 
species are known from the United States, and several others from 
Central and South America. The latest extinct species appears 
to have been Equus fraternus Leidy, which cannot be distinguished 
anatomically from the existing horse. These later extinct horses 
are all larger than the Pliocene Equines, and some of them even 
exceeded in size the living species. 


The large number of equine mammals now known from the 
Tertiary deposits of this country, and their regular distribution 
through the subdivisions of this formation, afford a good opportu- 
nity to ascertain the probable lineal descent of the modern horse. 
The American representative of the latter is the extinct Equus 
Sraternus Leidy, a species almost, if not entirely, identical with 
the old world Equus caballus Linn., to which our recent horse be- 
longs. Huxley has traced successfully the later genealogy of the 
horse through European extinct forms,* but the line in America 
was probably a more direct one, and the record is more complete. 

aking, then, as the extremes of a series, Orohippus agilis Marsh, 
from the Eocene, and Equus fraternus Leidy, from the Quaternary, 
intermediate forms may be intercalated with considerable cer- 
tainty from the thirty or more well marked species that lived 
in the intervening periods. The natural line of descent would 
seem to be through the following genera:— Orohippus, of the 
Eocene ; Miohippus and Anchitherium, of the Miocene ; Anchippus, 


* Anniversary Address, Geological Society of London, 1870. 


292 FOSSIL HORSES IN AMERICA. 


Hipparion, Protohippus and Pliohippus, of the Pliocene; and — 
Equus, Quaternary and recent. 
The most marked changes undergone by the successive equine — 
genera are as follows: 1st, increase in size; 2d, increase in speed, ; 
through concentration of limb bones; 3d, elongation of head and — 
neck, and modifications of skull. The increase in size is remark- — 
able. The Eocene Orohippus was about the size of a fox. Mio — 
hippus and Anchitherium, from the Miocene, were about as large — 
as a sheep. Hipparion and Pliohippus, of the Pliocene, equalled — 
the ass in height: while the size of the Quaternary Equus was fully — 
up to that of the modern horse. 2 
The increase of speed was equally marked, and was a direct 
result of the gradual modification of the limbs. The latter were — 
p Fis: 7. 2 


Xx a at 4 
a, Orohippus (Eocene); b, Miohippus (Miocene); c, Hipparion (Pliocene); E 

d, Equus (Quaternary). ee 
slowly concentrated, by the reduction of their lateral elements : 
and enlargement of the axial one, until the force exerted by 6% 
limb came to act directly through its axis, in the line of motion. 
This concentration is well seen, e. g., in the fore limb. *® 
was, Ist, a change in the scapula and humerus, especially 12 the : 
latter, which facilitated motion in one line only; 2d, m “~ — 
pansion of the radius, and reduction of the ulna, until the formet 
alone remained entire, and effective; 3d, a shortening of all the 

carpal bones, and enlargement of the median ones, enst 
firmer wrist; 4th, an increase in size of the third digit, at the or 
pense of those on each side, until the former alone supported : 
limb. The latter change is clearly shown in the above diagram 
(Fig. 75), which represents the fore feet of four typical genera 


FOSSIL HORSES IN AMERICA. 293 


the equine series, taken in succession from each of the geological 
periods in which this group of mammals is known to have lived. 
-The ancient Orohippus had all four digits of the fore feet well 
developed. In Miohippus, of the next period, the fifth toe has 
disappeared, or is only represented by a rudiment, and the limb is 
supported by the second, third and fourth, the middle one being 
the largest. Hipparion, of the later Tertiary, still has three digits, 
but the third is much stouter, and the outer ones have ceased to be 
of use, as they do not touch the ground. In Equus, the last of 
_the series, the lateral hoofs are gone, and the digits themselves 
are represented only by the rudimentary splint bones.* The 
middle, or third digit, supports the limb, and its size has increased 
accordingly. The corresponding changes in the posterior limb of 
these genera are very similar, but not so striking, as the oldest 
type (Orohippus) had but three toes behind. An earlier ancestor 
of the group, perhaps in the lowest Eocene, probably had four 
toes on this foot, and five in front. Such a predecessor is as 
clearly indicated by the feet of Orohippus, as the latter is by its 
Miocene relative. A still older ancestor, possibly in the Creta- 
ceous, doubtless had five toes in each foot, the typical number in 
mammals. This reduction in the number of toes may, perhaps, 
have been due to elevation of the region inhabited, which grad- 
ually led the animals to live on higher ground, instead of the soft 
lowlands where a polydactyl foot would be an advantage. 

The gradual elongation of the head and neck, which took place 
in the successive genera of this group during the Tertiary period, 
was a less fundamental change than that which resulted in the re- 
duction of the limbs. The process may be said to have already 
began in Orohippus, if we compare that form with other most 
nearly allied mammals. The diastema, or “ place for the bit,” was 
well developed in both jaws even then, but increased materially in 
succeeding genera. The number of the teeth remained the same 
until the Pliocene, when the front lower premolar was lost, and 
subsequently the corresponding upper tooth ceased to be function- 
ally developed. The next upper premolar, which in Orohippus 
was the smallest of the six posterior teeth, rapidly increased in 
size, and soon became, as in the horse, the largest of the series, 
The gr inding teeth at first had very short crowns, without cement, 


eet P S E 1 A nenaltie 
E - ua Ki 


J uas 


on the fore foot. 


294 FOSSIL HORSES IN AMERICA, 


and were inserted by distinct roots. In Pliocene species, the — 
molars became longer, and were more or less coated with cement. ; 
The modern horse has extremely long grinders, without true roots, 
and covered with a thick external layer of cement. The canine 
teeth were very large in Orohippus, and in this genus, as well as 
those from the Middle Tertiary, appear to have been well devel — 
oped in both sexes. In later forms, these teéth declined in size, 
especially as the changes in the limbs afforded other facilities for 
defence, or escape from danger. The incisors in the early forms — 
were small, and without the characteristic “mark” of the modem — 
horse. In the genera from the American Eocene and Miocene, — 
the orbit was not enclosed behind by an entire bridge of bone, 
and this first makes its appearance in this country in Pliocene. 
forms. The depression in front of the orbit, so characteristic of — 
Anchitherium and some of the Pliocene genera, is, strange to sayy : 
not seen in Orohippus, or the later Miohippus, and is wanting, 
likewise, in existing horses. It is an interesting fact that the pê- 
culiarly equine features acquired by Orohippus are retained per — 
sistently throughout the entire series of succeeding forms. Such, — 
e. g., is the form of the anterior part of the lower jaw, and also | 
the characteristic astragalus, with its narrow, oblique, superior : 
ridges, and its small articular facet for the cuboid. a 


Such is, in brief, a general outline of the more marked changes 2 
that seem to have produced in America the highly specialized i 
modern Equus from his diminutive, four-toed predecessor, m 
Eocene Orohippus. The line of descent appears to have hem w 
rect, and the remains now known supply every important inti 
mediate form. It is, of course, impossible to say with certaint 
through which of the three-toed genera of the Pliocene that li ey 
together, the succession came. It is not impossible that the Lg 
species, which appear generically identical, are the descendants 
more distinct Pliocene types, as the persistent tendency in all ye 
earlier forms was in the same direction. Considering the ren 
able development of the group through the entire Tertiary a 
and its existence even later, it seems very strange that none oft : 
species should have survived, and that we are indebted for w 
present horse to the old world. ' n 


NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST 
IN EUROPE. 


BY W. 5. FARLOW, M.D. 
PART III. GENEVA AND THE ALPS. 

AFTER a month of wandering through Switzerland and northern 
Italy, I have, at length, settled in this charming city for the purpose 
of more systematic botanical study than one is likely to under- 
take in such resorts as Grindelwald and Zermatt. I arrived in 
Switzerland from Munich about the middle of July, and reached 
Grindelwald on the 20th, when the alpine vegetation was in full 
bloom, and I think I never saw such a display of wild flowers as 
was then to be found in almost all the high pastures, or Alps 
proper, and, still higher up, on exposed rocks just below the snow 
line. For the European botanist, who is only in search of rarities, 
Zermatt is much richer than Grindelwald. In general, Dauphiny 
is more favorable for the botanist than Switzerland itself, but to 
an American, who must, at least, see Switzerland and who wishes 
to get a good general idea of the alpine flora at the same time, 
no place seems to me better adapted than Grindelwald. The 
valley is easily and quickly reached and, only a few steps from the 
village, is the moraine of the lower glacier which, by a constant 
recession (according to the guides) for twenty years, has left ex- 
posed a mass of rocks on which, but more particularly along 
their border, may be found numerous alpine and sub-alpine plants. 
Amongst the most beautiful and common, are Linaria alpina DC. 
and Epilobium Fleischeri Hochst. which attract the eye of non- 
botanical travellers, and even of the guides themselves. To the 
left of the moraine (looking up) and along the path leading to 
the mer de glace one can Without fatigue collect alpine plants to 
his heart’s content, including even the famous Edelweiss, Leontopo- 
dium alpinum Cass., unless he arrives a little late in the season, in 
which case, every trace of it will have disappeared under the dev- 
astations of guides and tourists. For my part, I can’t see the 
least beauty in the flower, and it was a great annoyance to have a 
handful thrust into my face every few minutes by some enter- 
prising, but not over-polite, Swiss boy. It does very well, how- 

(295) 


296 NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 


ever, for the guides to wear a sprig in their hats, it gives them — 
such a decided alpine look and, then, it is so romantic. Every — 
one has heard about the chamois hunters who imperil their lives in 
gathering the Edelweiss growing about half-way up steep preci- 
pices, nobody knows . how many thousand feet high, all for the 
sake of some beauteous maiden. At present, maidens of the above — 
class have probably retired to the remotest valleys; at any rate, a 
they are not met with in Grindelwald. But Edelweiss may be had e 
without great risk of life or limb; for while crossing the Simplon — 
I had only to step out of the diligence to pick specimens of it : 
growing on some rocks near the road. But, to return to our path E 
to the mer de glace —along the lower portion a most beautiful 
effect is produced by the quantities of Phalangium ramosum Lam. — 
and Astrantia major L., growing together, the latter proving that 
even an umbellifer can be beautiful. Above, on the mountain, 
Aconitum Napellus and A. lycoctonum, with numerous Caryophyl- 
laceæ, attract the attention of the traveller. Far 
No one who is so fortunate as to be in Grindelwald in July, On 
the beginning of August, should fail to ascend the Faulhorn. 
emerging from the forest, uninteresting, except from a few Camp- 
anulæ, to all but lichenologists, one finds in abundance the bom z 
tiful alpine rose, Rhododendron ferrugineum L., which the ladies 
are so fond of fastening in bunches to the ends of their alpen = 
stocks ; and, growing with it in abundance, but flowering a little 
later, the odd Gentiana punctata L. After passing the chilet, te 
really alpine flora is first seen in a meadow blue with Gentiana 
Bavarica and G. verna mixed with Androsace, while the most 
beautiful G. acaulis occurs farther on. Every step discloses a 
beauties, the fragrant Nigritella angustifolia, Viole, Primule, Den 
perviva, Saxifrage and composites without end, till the climax i8 
reached at a little knoll not far from a small black looking ee 
_ just under the snow fields, which is covered with Soldanella minim 
Hoppe. The nodding of the beautiful little purple-blue corollas, 
the distant tinkling of hundreds of bells from a large herd in the 
alp below, the bare black rocks and snow ahead, and behind ei : 
magnificent mass of the Wetterhorn, from which one hears eee 
avalanches, all form a picture which no one is likely to toren 
The proper time for seeing the alpine flowers is from the oR 
of July till the middle of August, better however in July. pe” 
who arrive late in August, as do most of the Americans, will seat 


NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 297 


in vain, even in the richest localities, for a glimpse at the wonder- 
ful profusion and brilliancy of the mountain flora. Single spec- 
imens of many and some even rare species may then be found, 
but the flowers will have ceased to be a feature of the landscape. 
The lichenologist will find superb specimens of Evernia divaricata 
in fruit in the forest between Grindelwald and the Rosenlaui 
glacier. 

I regret not having had time to explore the St. Gothard for 
lichens which are said to be interesting in that region. The rocks 
below the celebrated Devil’s Bridge were covered with Gyrophore, 
mostly common species, however. The richest botanical field of 
Switzerland which the American is likely to visit is Zermatt, 
at the foot of Monte Rosa. Here, there is enough to catch the 
eye of the traveller, but the species for which Zermatt is partic- 
ularly famed must be diligently sought, and one who expects to 
examine this region profitably must make up his mind to stay at 
least a week. Interesting plants are found on the road from Visp 
to Zermatt and, at least, the first half of the way, as far as St. 
Niklaus, had better be made on foot for that reason. The Riffel- 
berg is interesting in the season but, by the middle of August, 
not very much is to be found. The Pinus cembra of this moun- 
tain, and the larches whose trunks are gay with Evernia vulpina, 
are certainly worth seeing. 

As far as botany is concerned, Chamounix is very uninteresting, 
although the lichens are tolerably numerous. The Flegére is al- 
most stupid in its monotony, and the only plant of any interest is 
the fern Allosorus crispus, abundant just before entering the forest. 
Attracted by the name ‘‘le Jardin,” I started off early one morning 
expecting to return laden with treasures. The scenery was mag- 
nificent, but the so-called garden is destitute of all but common al- 
pine plants, such as Gentiana punctata, G. Bavarica, Linaria 
alpina, ete. The excursion on the whole is fatiguing over the mer 
de glace as far as can be seen from Montanvert, then, round a 
corner of the Aiguille du moine to the Telafére moraine, then a 
horrid climb up the moraine relieved only by the bright flowers of 
Adenostytes albifrons, and across the Telafére glacier 1 to the Jardin ; 
in all, a walk of nine hours over snow, ice and morain 

Tat me now say a word about the books a traveller jad better 
take with him to the botanical districts. I started with Koch’s 
“ Taschenbuch der Deutschen und Schweizer Flora,” which I found 


298 NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 


to answer the desired object very well, although it is somewhat an- ae 
tiquated. It is notin print, however, and can only be obtained at 
second-hand bookstores of the large cities. I had the misfortune 
to lose my “‘ Taschenbuch ”and had some trouble in finding a sub- 
stitute at Lucerne. Let me warn all your readers against a — 
wretched “Taschenbegleiter des Alpenclubisten” by Dr. R. T. 
Smiler. One might just as well try to find a plant in Bradshaw's a 
“ Railway Guide.” At last, in Geneva, I found an excellent little — | 
guide called “Flore analytique de la Suisse” by P. Morthier of Nens : 
chatel, second edition, 1872. It is compact and, if only decently 
bound, instead of being in paper covers like all continental books, 
would be as convenient as possible. The orders are arranged at- | 
cording to the natural, but the key on the Linnzan, system. The, 
author, it must be remarked, has a very neat way of getting ovet 
difficulties in the larger and more complicated genera. The prin- 
cipal species are clearly given and, at the bottom of the pages® — 
note like the following: Between species A and B are several 
hybrids known as species C, D, E, etc., of different authors. Thaw 
might certainly be called eliminating difficulties. e 
Geneva, although long known as the residence of distinguished 
scientific men, is not, at present, so much frequented by Americans — . 
who wish to pursue science as the German University towns — 
The Academy partakes to a large degree of the nature of © 
German gymnasium. This is owing, partly, to the absence, until 
recently, of good practical laboratories which are so common 1? 
ermany, and to which that country is indebted for the large H 
flux of foreign students. Recently, however, the new Academy 
buildings have been finished in a very substantial manners 
the number of laboratories, chemical, physical, anatomical, phys 
iological, botanical, zoological, ete., is quite astonishing. It ® 
said that a part of the large sum bequeathed to the city by ne 
Duke of Brunswick is to be devoted to improving the mee 
and raising it to the rank of a University. I have 20%) 
this will soon be done, and then Geneva may attract America? 
students, as the beauty of its situation and the opportunities for 
learning French are two very decided advantages. a 
Botany is, at present, represented here by M. Alphonse a 
Candolle and his son M. Casimir and Dr. Johann Miller,” 
Argoviensis, to distinguish him from the numerous other ae 
istinguished in botany and zodlogy. M. Edward Boissier © 


G 


NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 299 


sides near the city, and the aged M. Duby a short distance up on 
the lake. Besides these is a M. Thurie, professor of vegetable 
physiology. The laboratory of the latter has been recently fitted 

The botanical garden, although forming a very pleasant play- 
ground for children and their nurses, is hardly what one would 
expect from a city in which three generations of De Candolles 
have lived. It is whispered that the city government prefers to 
use it as a propagating garden for the supply of the public squares 
and parks. 

In herbaria the city is very rich, there being, at present, three 
distinct large collections; the De Candolle herbarium opposite 
the cathedral; the collection of M. Boissier at his residence ; and 
that of Delessert formerly in Paris. The latter is not yet ar- 
ranged and will be for some time particularly inaccessible. The 
De Candolle herbarium is in two divisions; the first, from which 
the earlier volumes of the Prodromus were written, remains as a 
classic memorial of that work, no additions or alterations mage 
made in it, but all purchases and exchanges are inserted in the 
second herbarium, which contains the materials of the later vol- 
umes. 

The curator of the herbarium is Dr. Miller, whom I found on 
my arrival resting from the fatigue arising from his work on Bra- 
zilian Rubiacez, by devoting himself to his favorites the lichens. 
With his assistance I was enabled to study the lichen flora of Ge- 
neva. This excellent botanist and most amiable man has an ex- 
tensive general knowledge of all branches of botany, and does 
not turn up his nose at the smaller plants as bencath his notice. 
In his knowledge of lichens he has few equals in Europe, although 
most of his time is given to the study of phænogams. e 
Vegeiations-punkt mania does not prevail at Geneva as in Ger- 
many, where it affects many of the younger botanists to such an 
extent that they are quite unfitted for practical work. The — 
Germans are constantly making the mistake that everything mi- 
croscopic is important, in fact more important than anything else. 

The flora of Geneva is exceedingly interesting, the city being 
Situated at a point where a northern and southern flora unite, 
It was too late to study the phenerogams when I arrived, but the 
lichens are always in season. A short hour from the city is 
the Pas de l’Echelle leading to the passage between the Grand 
and Petit Saléve. Here is the original station of a number of 


300 NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 


species of lichens. Along the path one sees rocks and stones — 
bearing marks of the chisel. These were made by Dr. Müller 
who points out the identical spot where the first Amphiloma 
granulosum was found by him, as well as other new species. i 
Everywhere lichens abound. In the passage above, between the i 
Grand and Petit Salève, the rocks of the two sides bear different 
species: to the left, the rare Toninia Boissieri, Lynalissa Sali- es 
vensis and Omphalaria pulvinata, and to the right, many Verru- — | 
cariacee. At present, more than a thousand species of lichens — : 
have been found in the vicinity of Geneva, a very large number 3 
for a local flora. In one spot a number of holes have been drilled 
into the rocks, and Prof. DeBary one day suggested jokingly; — 
that Dr. Müller was going to blow up the mountain to see if he — 
could not find some new species inside. To show how thoroughly 
Dr. Müller has explored this region (pointing to a ledge of rocks) 
he said that he began at one end one Sunday, and examined & 
certain tract marking the place where he left off, and returned iN 
on successive Sundays until the whole ledge was explored. the 
Eldorado of lichenologists is near the summit of the Grand 
Gorge on the Grand Saléve. Between the fallen boulders at the 
foot of the mountain is found Cyclamen Europeum in abundances 
and also the rare fern Asplenium Halleri which generally grows 
with Solorina saccata. ee 
On the opposite side of Geneva from the Saléve and farther 
distant are the highest summits of the Jura, the Dôle, Colombier 
and Reculet. Of these the Dôle is the most accessible. The 
ascent is made from St. Cergues about three hours distant wo 
Nyon on the lake. The excellent road ascends gradually tox 
Cergues and affords magnificent views of the lake and Mt. Blane. 
It is from this route that one is best enabled to form a CO" 
idea of the height of the latter mountain which seems to ™ 
higher and higher, while the lower mountains, as the Saléve 
the Mole sink gradually until they are lost in an undulating Pl gi 
At St. Cergues the traveller finds himself in a very prim 
region. The doors of the rooms at the inn are destitute 0t ©” 
or locks. There being no fire or possibility of a fire except 
the kitchen I took refuge in that apartment and looked on m 
tonishment while the landlady made soup of bread, water ; 
garlics. The “anything warm that I wanted” turned oat 
cold Swiss sausage, All that I can forgive, but wh 


NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 301 


landlady stand by me while I was eating, and ask if I liked the 
food? Of course, I had to say it was delicious. The next day, 
with a gendarmes as a guide, carrying an enormous basket with 
a very little luncheon, I went to the summit, passing through 
large forests of Abies excelsa, and pastures full of the beautiful 
Gentiana ciliata. The rocks of the summit were covered with 
- lichens, the most striking of which were Biatora rupestris, var. 
calva, Verrucaria plumbea, V. Dufourii, Blastenia Agardhiana, 
B. nubigena, Caloplaca chalybea and Biatora Jurana. Having 
disposed of our luncheon, I soon managed to fill the basket, my 
box, and all my pockets to overflowing, to say nothing of two or 
three leaves of Cirsium ferox covered with a Puccinia, and several 
large agarics which I carried in one hand. The gendarmes did > 
not seem to mind the Cladoniew and Parmelie much: but I thought 
his countenance fell as he saw the Verrucarie and other. mine- 
ralogical plants going into the basket which I kindly allowed him 
to carry. Returning to Nyon in the omnibus I managed to in- 
commode my neighbors by the specimens in my coat pockets. In 
my lap was a heap of Cladoniw and Peltigeræ, and a worthy 
Switzer opposite got his feet entangled in the strap of my bo- 
tanical box, where were my choicest specimens, and I soon saw it 
moving towards the door bottom upwards with the cover open. 
But every one was restored to good nature by a young lady, just 
from Paris, who distributed a package of candy amongst the com- 
pany. 

An interesting locality for lichens is along the Arve above 
Geneva; but, at the time of my visit, the stones on which they 
grow were under water. Only in spring can one collect there 
with advantage. During his excursions in the higher Alps, M. Cas- 
imir De Candolle has made some interesting discoveries with 
regard to the height at which lichens grow. He found on the 
summit of Monte Rosa (15,217 ft. high) Amphiloma murorum. 
The upper part of the Schreckhorn (13,386 ft. high) is covered 
with lichens; so far as is known, however, only common species. 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


Surveys Wesr or THE 100TH Merrp1an.— We have before 
Lt. Wheeler’s preliminary report of progress of the geograph 
and geological surveys, and explorations west of the 100th 
ian in Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. 
fourth season of field work was brought to a close in December last, 
when the parties returned to Washington to elaborate results. 
These surveys have been made to perfect and supplement each other i 
in such a way that a vast extent of country has been covered 
from central California over a great part of Nevada, as far east 
eastern Utah and south including Arizona. The initial work 
surveys consists in the accurate mapping out of the public domain 
lying to the westward of the 100th meridian. ‘To accomplish t 8 
a number of skilled topographers ahd astronomers have. been em- 
ployed, whose successful efforts can hardly be overestimated iÍ 
these particular lines. As collateral branches of the work, geo! 
mineralogy, chemistry, botany, ethnology and zoology, all have 
ceived due share of attention and large collections have been ma 
amounting to many thousands of specimens. In addition to 
scientific subjects, the questions more especially bearing on | 
ical economy have been carefully discussed ; such as methods 
irrigation, mining, etc., the establishment of military posts, ¢ 
Numerous photographs were taken representing the ancient as ¥ 
as modern dwellings of the Indians, the geological formati 
mountains, etc. A vast amount of manuscript is in hand 
for publication should Cońgress make the necessary and 
proper appropriations. Probably not less than fifty new , 
of insects, fish, etc., will be figured in the reports, which will 
sist of seven quarto volumes besides an atlas of maps, W 
already near completion. From the maps we have seen, W 
that they are probably the best of the country ever made. 
year’s work will consist of labors in the mining district * 
as Snab in Colorado. The personnel of the party is nearly 
same as heretofore, consisting of the following accomplis! 
cers ; among the names will be recognized several well knot 
naturalists :—Lt. G. M. Wheeler, Corps of Engineers in charge 
W. M. Marshall, Corps of Engineers Astronomical ; Li. ® 


ri 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 303 


Hogie, Corps of Engineers Meteorological; Dr. H. S. Yarrow, 
U.S.A., Surgeon and Naturalist; Dr. J. T. Rothrock, U.S.A., 
Surgeon and Botanist; Dr. Oscar Loew, Chemist and Mineralo- 
gist; H. W. Henshaw, Assistant Naturalist and Ornithologist ; 
besides a corps of trained collectors. 

The area gone over in 1873 was no less than 76,000 square 
miles, and Lt. Wheeler’s work has probably not been surpassed 
for general accuracy and minuteness of detail. Dr. Yarrow’s 
name, as that of the officer in charge of Natural History division 
of the work, is suflicient guarantee of the highly creditable manner 
in which that branch of investigation is conducted. His results, 
to many of which we have already enjoyed access, are of great in- 
terest and importance. It is to be earnestly hoped that this great 
and most important work may not be restricted for want of the 
funds needed for its completely successful a .— ELLIOTT 

OUES. 


Cueckx List or Co.zoprera.*—A new and revised list of our 
beetles has long been needed, as a convenience in arranging our 
cabinets and facilitating exchanges. Its publication has also been 
necessitated by the numerous changes which have been made in 
synonymy, mostly based on comparisons made by Dr. LeConte 
in Europe, and others from examinations made by the author. 
Some important changes have been made in the arrangement of 
the families, the Coccinellide, Erotylide and Endomychide being 
placed in the Clavicorn series by Mr. Crotch, an important meas- 
ure sanctioned by Drs. LeConte and Horn, while the weevils are 
placed at the end of the series in accordance with the views of 
Dr. LeConte. 


Dictionary or ELEVATIONS OF THE UNITED Srates.f — Though 
of special value to physicians, this book will be useful to those 
interested in the geographical distribution of plants and animals, 
as the elevations of many points, particularly in the Rocky Moun- 
tains, are given ,in a compact form. The Dictionary contains in 


Rae fag of the oles of America north of Mexico. By G. R. Crotch. 
Salem, Mass., Naturalists’ Agency, 1874. 8vo, pp. 136. $1. 

{Dictionary or penip S r “climatic Register ı of the United ga containing, 
he total annual 
rainf: ul of many ar open with a brief -o ‘on the o jee and other 
Physical peculiarities of North America. By J. Seed is M.D. New York. 
Nostrand, 1874. 8yvo, pp. 98. Price $3.00 paper; ape 


804 BOTANY. 


addition to elevations, the latitude and mean annual tempe 
of many localities. We notice some inaccuracies and omi 
in comparing it with ‘‘Gannett’s List of Elevations” published 
Hayden’s Survey, those relating to the heights of pron 
mountains being inexcusable. These, with typographical an 


FLora or Cororapo.*—The inhabitants of the far west 
eastern tourists will have reason to thank Dr. Hayden for 
useful series of practical manuals of the natural history 
Rocky Mountains he is so energetically pushing on to completi 
This synopsis, the first of the series, is very opportune, a 
places in the hands of the tourist or botanist a ready means 
identifying the plants of a region so rich in interest as Uoior® 

e only regret that the preliminary essay on the geogra 
distribution of the Rocky Mountain flora could not have ap 
in the same volume. h 

The plan followed in the synopsis is that of Mr. Watson ™™ 
catalogue contained in the fifth volume of ‘* King’s Report on on the 
Geology, etc., of the Fortieth Parallel.” Descriptions are given ' 
all the jiii not mentioned in “Gray’s Manual,” “ Chap 
Flora” and other floras of the eastern states 

The mosses and Hepaticæ have been elaborated by M 
Lesquereux, the lichens by Mr. H. Willey, and the fungi by ™ 
Peck, while the name of the author of the larger portion on *™ 
nerogams is a sufficient guarantee of the quality of the work. 


BOTANY. 


ABNORMAL FORM OF ALLOsoRUSs ACROSTICHOIDES. — OD & 
Isle Royale, Michigan (Lake Superior), in August, "a I x 4 


present flourishes on a rockwork made for the purpose- 
an instance of a curious abnormality which, I believe, ? 
hitherto been noticed in this fern. I refer to its producing ft ke 


* Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado. By Thomas ©. Porter and Jan P 
Department of the Interior U, 8, Geological and Geographical apb a 
tories, F.V, porte | U.S. l Genlogish in charge. Miscellaneous Pub 
Washington, 


BOTANY. 305 


in which the upper part is fertile, having the usual very narrow 
linear divisions, while the lower part, barren, has all the character- 
istics of the sterile frond with its “ obovate decurrent and crenately 
toothed or incised segments.” The abnormal frond is also quite 
as tall-as the fertile fronds, which in this fern, it is well known, 
have always much taller stipes than the sterile fronds, lifting them 
high above the latter. 

I was much gratified to behold this dainty graceful fern growing. 
in its native haunts—its isolated home. It was now in full per- 
fection, which was not the case at the time of my first visit to the 
island, in May. I observed that it generally grew in clefts or on 
shelves of the outcropping ridges of metamorphosed sandstone, 
partially. shaded by trees, and always facing the south. It was 
invariably surrounded with a mass of débris largely formed of the 
decayed fronds of numerous previous generations of the fern, 
while the straw-like stipes of many years remained erect and dry 
encircling the plant below, and no doubt affording it valuable pro- 
tection.— Henry GILLMAN, Detroit, Michigan. 


Rumex PATIENTIA L.— This rumex is not mentioned in Wood's 
Botany, and the brief reference to it in the last edition of Gray’s 
Manual in connection with Amherst, Mass., suggésts that it is 
comparatively rare. It may therefore be interesting to botanists, 
to know that it is not uncommon in Amherst, and at least three of 
the neighboring towns, growing by the roadside or near dwellings. 
And when the writer was at Highgate Springs in northwestern 
Vermont during the past season, it was everywhere as abundant 
and apparently as much at home as any of our introduced ru- 
mices.— H. G. J. 


Tur Nortuernmost FLoweRING Prants.—Dr. Bessels, of H all’s 
Arctic expedition, collected according to a note in “Nature” by 
Dr. J. ooker, four plants from the east side of Smith’s Sound 
in latitude 82° N. They are Draba alpina L., Cerastium alpinum 
L., Taraxacum dens-leonis Def. var. and Poa flexuosa Wahl. This 
is the most northern locality where any phanerogamous g 
tion has been found. 


THE SMALL-FLOWERED PARNASSIA IN Mıcnrean.— In the summer 
of 1866, I made the interesting discovery of the small-flowered 
grass of Parnassus (Parnassia parviflora DC.), at White-fish Bay, 
Wisconsin, on the lg pee - Lake Michigan. The 

AMER. NATURALIST, VO 


306 BOTANY. 


elegant little plants grew in patches of moss, in clefts of the rock, 
within reach of the spray from the lake. v 

As I was the first to discover this flower on Lake Michigan (in 
Wisconsin), so now, I believe, I am the first to find it in the state 
of Michigan, and thus have the pleasure of adding to its flora this — 
somewhat rare plant. I found it to-day (August 1, 1873), growing — 
rather abundantly on Grand Island, Michigan, along the high cliffs 
of red Potsdam sandstone overhanging Lake Superior. At this a 
date some of the plants are in full flower, others have gone to a 
seed, while a number have flower-buds still unexpanded. a 

I wish to call attention to the number of the sterile filaments in 
each set— so specific a distinction in this genus. Gray gives the 
number in P. parviflora as “about five in each set,” which corre 
sponds, I think, with other descriptions. In a large number ots 
specimens which I have to-day carefully examined, I find the — 
sterile filaments from six to nine, and occasionally eleven in each — 
set; but oftenest they are seven. This about agrees with my 
Lake Michigan plant. The flower is from five-eighths to three 
fourths of an inch broad; and the petals are. decidedly (generally wee 
one-fourth to one-third) longer than the calyx. The ova oa 
rather oblong leaves are somewhat heart-shaped at the base. 

These Lake Superior plants, growing mostly on the soft and dis- 
integrated sandstone, are of more luxuriant appearance than my 
specimens from Lake Michigan, which grew on limestone rock. I 
observed that matlike tufts of the plant, which had fallen from the 
beetling cliff, frequently took root and flourished on the beach be- 
low; though, doubtless, they are in such cases often swept away : 
by the fierce waves of Lake Superior. ts 

It seems to me that the Parnassias would make interesting 
garden plants, and prove easy of cultivation, Their cup-like 
flowers, of a delicate white finely veined with green, could not - 
to be considered ornamental; while the lengthy period of blos 
soming would be an additional recommendation. — HENRY Gur- 
MAN, Detroit, Michigan. 


Tue FRESH WATER AtG& or NORTH America.—Students of ‘ee 
fresh water algæ will find in the beautiful and interesting work © 
Dr. H. C. Wood, Jr., “ A Contribution to the History of the *™ 
Water Algæ of North America,” a ready means of identi i 
their specimens. It is a large quarto volume, with many 


BOTANY. 307 


plates, and is taken from the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowl- 
edge. 


APLECTRUM HYEMALE AGAIN.— Of the thirty plants of Aplectrum 
‘hyemale Nutt., transferred to my garden from the woods north of 
Detroit, on the 20th of April, 1873, mention of which has already 
been made in the Narura.isr, but two sent up flower scapes and 
of those but one came to perfection. The petals of this expanded 
on the 5th of June. The other scape proved abortive, the raceme 
not appearing from the sheath. 

At the date of October 1st most of the new leaves of my plants 
were from one inch to three inches above ground, while some were 
only just protruding from the earth. The plants seem to be quite 
healthy. 

Numerous communications, received from various places since 
the printing of my note, are mostly meme) of the opinion I 
had arrived at as to the rarity of the blossom 

As a generally accepted opinion is that Ga Sikes is not found 
in Massachusetts, I would here say that I have lately been informed 
on reliable authority that there is but one known station for it in 
that state, viz., Amherst, where rad two or three seasons it has 
been collected in flower.» 

I omitted mentioning in my former note that on June 30, 
1870, I collected: in our woods a single withered scape with pods, 
of the previous season, showing that the plant had flowered there 
in 1869.—Henry Gittman, Detroit, Michigan. ; 


DEVELOPMENT oF FERNS WITHOUT FertiLization.—At a late 
meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Prof. 
Gray communicated a paper by his former pupil, Dr. W. 
Farlow, now in Germany, on the development of ferns from the 
prothallium irrespective of fertilization, by a sort of parthenogen- 
esis. The growth observed took place, not from an archegonium, 
but from some other part of the prothallium. 


LOBELIA SYPHILITICA VAR. ALBA.—In 1868 I found near Prince- 
ton, N. J., a single plant of Lobelia syphilitica v. alba, which must 
be very rare in this country. It was found among many other 
plants bearing blue flowers—though in this case they were perfectly 
white— and continued to bear white flowers for three years as did 
also the seedlings from this plant. After this time I lost sight of 


308 ZOOLOGY. 


the plants. Paxton (Bot. Dict.) instances the var. alba, but 
American authors do not look upon it as a permanent variety.— 
J. S. Hoven. ; 


ZOOLOGY. 


OLIvE-SIDED FrycatcnHer.—In the December number of the 
Narurauisr Mr. C. Hart Merriam, in remarking on Contopus - 
borealis, states, that he obtained a fine specimen at Easthampton, 
Massachusetts, and asks if this species has ever been taken in 
Massachusetts before. 

During the past three or four years I have observed each year — 
several specimens of this beautiful flycatcher in the vicinity of 
Cambridge, Mass., and although I consider this a rare bird with 
us, I am inclined to think a few breed within the limits of the 
state every year. I have always observed it in May or June, 
though specimens have been captured here in the fall. 

With us it is a very wary and shy species when it first arrives 
from the south, frequenting the topmost branches of tall trees, and 
its mild, clear notes can be heard at along distance, but at the 
Umbagog Lakes, in Maine, where it breeds in numbers, it does not 
show nearly so much shyness as it exhibits during its northern — 
migrations through Massachusetts. I have taken several speci- i 
mens there in the course of a few hours. eo 

On the 23d of June, 1873, I had an unusual opportunity of ob- & 
serving a pair of Contopus borealis in Belmont, Mass. For sev 
eral days previous [ had heard one of the flycatchers uttering its ae 
peculiar call from a hillside which was sparsely covered with firs. a 

On the above date, as I was passing that locality, I again heard 
the notes of this bird in nearly the same place, and thinking r 
must be breeding I approached in the direction of the sound, and 
soon saw the flycatcher in question sitting, in its erect posture, 0R- 
the top of a small fir tree. I was surprised at the near approach 
it allowed me, as I was within a few yards of the tree before w 
bird took flight, though but for a short distance, however, a8 5 
alighted on the dead branch of a maple a few yards off, and per. 
then joined by its mate. I then secreted myself in a aea 
barberry bushes where I remained for some time wate ing them 
_ From the uneasiness the birds exhibited, I was convinced they 


had a nest in the immediate vicinity, though the locality ee 
particularly adapted for breeding, but although I se 2 


MICROSCOPY. 809 


gently I was unable to find the nest. I am aware that there have 
been several nests found in eastern Massachusetts, though this 
must certainly be its most southern breeding range. 

I have thought the species must leave us on their southern mi- 
gration by the first of September, though I saw one specimen at 
Moosehead Lake, Maine, as late as the Ist of Oct., 1873, at which 
period the weather was quite cold, water freezing round our camp 
most every night.—Rurnven Deane, Cambridge, Mass. 


Tue Ottve-sipep Fiycatcner.—At the close of an article on 
Contopus borealis, which appeared in the December number of the 
Naturatisr (page 750), I made the inquiry ‘‘ Has this species ever 
been obtained in Massachusetts before?” Since then I have as- 
certained that specimens of it have been collected in eastern 
Massachusetts by Mr. C. J. Maynard, Wm. Brewster, Esq. and 
others, and that it occasionally breeds within the state. 

In addition to the note previously described, Mr. Nuttall said: 
“ The female had a whistling, oft-repeated, whining call of ’pu "pu, 
then varied to pù ’pip, and ’pip ’pu, also at times ’pip "pip ’pu, 
pip’ pip pip, "pit pir pip, or tù ’tù tù, and tù ’tu. The male, 
besides this note, had, at long intervals, a call of seh ’phebeé or 
h ’phedéd.” It is such a difficult undertaking to represent accu- 
rately the note of a bird by means of letters, that no two persons 
describe that of the same species by the same characters, although 
when pronounced, the syllables generally give the same sound. 
Thus Mr. Nuttall’s call of ’h ’phebéd is undoubtedly the same as 
that described by myself as O whéd. His imitation of the note of 
the female bird is most excellent: I have heard it many times and 
omitted giving it only because I neglected to write it down while 
in the field, and it will never do to trust to memory for such 
matters.— C. HART MERRIAM. 


MICROSCOPY. 


On tHe Srructure or Draroms.— Tt is hoped that the publica- 
tion of the following memoranda will serve the double purpose of 
elucidating the structure of the tests, and at the same time de- 
monstrating the utility of microscopical objectives of exceptionally 
high powers. The uncertainty of the footing in this unstable and 
Contested ground will necessitate many errors, and may serye as 


Ey ey 
een 
3 Sot OMS a Dae 


310 MICROSCOPY. 


an excuse for them. So many competent microscopists have — 
written upon this subject that the writer would fain be silent were _ 
it not for a firm belief in the superiority of the instrument he — 
used, for this kind of investigation. In fact this excellent glass — 
gives advanced work on almost every test tried, and fully justifies : 
‘the confidence reposed in it. The observations recorded below, — 
unless where otherwise stated, were made with a Tolles ṣẹ im- — 
mersion objective of 165° angle of aperture, and generally a — 
Tolles’ two inch eye-piece, giving an amplification of 2500 diame- — 
ters. A 
Eupodiscus Argus.— My attention was especially called to this — 
shell by having noticed the wide difference between the views of z 
Mr. Henry J. Slack, Mr. Samuel Wells and Mr. Charles Stodder. — 
My observations are corroborative of the idea of two plates as e 
asserted by Messrs. Stodder and Wells. Using a 3 objective with — 
power of 340 times obtained by high eye-piece and extending — 
draw tube, and using a Lieberkiihn, the outside or coarser mark- 
ings on specimens mounted convex side uppermost are white with © | 
white cloud illumination. An erased space on one shell and the 4 
holes or depressions through which Slack’s four large ‘ spherules” i 
are seen are now black. They, then, are not covered by the ex- 
ternal ‘‘ crust.” 
The slide was then turned over and the inside of the same 
specimen examined by the same method, and on the more favor- 
able portions of it the finer net-work of the inner plate is also sap ee 
in white, the ‘‘spherules” being perfectly black. By this resect 
light the “four spherules” are plainly seen to be dark openings — 
in the white plate and the’ net-work is clearly traced across the : 
areolæ in the outside plate. The diatom looks like a piece of : 
coarse white netting laid over a finer piece. ; 
Under the Tolles 1, and with transmitted light, whether ¢? 
tral or oblique, it matters not, all portions of the surface of both 
the upper and the lower plates are found to be covered with, 0 
‘composed of, a still finer net-work with irregular oval meshes like 
the two coarser ones. pe 
The place in the shell above referred to, where the layers are 
erased, denuding an interior structureless “vail,” gives an OPE 
tunity to observe the edges of the fractured layers. The broke 
edges of both plates bordering on the erasure show the jagging 
this finest net structure. The arrangement of the finest are? 


MICROSCOPY. 311 


more regular near the margin of the diatom or appears so by 
reason of the simpler character of the structure in that part. 
They are easily seen with the J; on any part of every specimen 
studied, but are unusually distinct between the ‘four spherules” 
on the inner plate looking through the largest openings in the 
. outer plate; or may be rendered still more distinct on shells with 
the concave side up. They are more difficult to be seen on the 
outside crust with the high powers used because of its greater 
opacity. Deductions from focal changes with reference to the 
various markings lying in different focal planes corroborate the 
conclusions above expressed. 

The disks examined are on Mdller’s Probe-Platte and on a slide 
prepared by Mr. Wells. 

Hyalodiscus subtilis Bailey —On this beautiful little shell the 
‘engine rulings” are readily seen with almost any illumination, 
and the inevitable concomitant of intersecting lines, whether real 
or illusory beading are displayed. When we use monochromatic 
light the whole scene is changed. The hyaline portion of the disk 
is instantly resolved into perfectly well defined hexagons, radiat- 
ing from the central nucleus. The central part because of its 
greater depth and complexity is only resolved into irregularly 
Shaped spaces of a more or less hexagonal form. Every one of 
the five beads usually seen represents the centre of an hexagonal 
plane exactly as in Pleurosigma angulatum. 

The hexagons are well defined with a power of 7,000 diameters. 
They may also be seen with lamp or daylight. 

Triceratium favus.—The two sets of markings on this fasci- 
nating object certainly lie in different focal planes (see Carpenter, 
“The Microscope,” 4th ed., p. 282 and note) and probably ‘‘ be- 
long to two distinct layers.” The coarse hexagonal ridges are 
found to project from the outer or convex surface, and the inner 
plate bears the minute markings. This is proved by the fact that 
the fine markings show decidedly the plainest on valves that are 
mounted with the interior surface uppermost. 

Under this superior objective the finer markings like. the larger 
are distinctly faveolate. Their hexagonal structure is easily seen 
even with lamp illumination. Wh tively thick 
shells, possessing 4 complex structure, like the ee in question, the 
necessity for avoiding errors caused by too intense or by exces- 
Sively oblique light becomes at once apparent. The unequal 


312 MICROSCOPY. 


refraction of the light in passing through the external siliceous 
layer produces a distorted image upon and of the interior surface. 
In this manner distorted small hexagons may be seen along the 
lines of the larger net-work by a lens incapable of clearly dis- 
playing the minute hexagonal markings above described. 

The best results are obtained on the T. favus with a moderate 
light nearly central. 

Surirella gemma.— This beautiful form has been subjected to 
all the different conditions of illumination in my possession. 
Like other relatively thick shells the appearances presented by the 
markings vary greatly with the changing conditions of observa- 
tion. No trouble is experienced in bringing out the longitudinal 
strie, nor in making the little beauty seem to ‘ wear beads.” At 
times the beads give place to rectangles, and again after careful 
manipulation to sharply defined elongated hexagons (‘+ The Mi- 
croscope,” Carpenter, page 182). Hartnack’s hexagons as figured 
are too much elongated ; although sometimes such an appearance 
is presented when the illuminating pencil is at right angles with 
the median line, the transverse lines being less distinctly percep- 
tible. When the light is so arranged as to show every side with 
equal perfection the form of the markings is nearer that of regular 
hexagons. 

The Amici prism is found to work excellently on the Surirella, 
and when itis used with the y objective and the blue cell the 
slightly elongated hexagons are easily exhibited on an average — 

stule. os 

Aulacodiscus Kittonii.— This splendid disk is traced with o se 
angular figures evidently elevations and the spaces between om a 
lines are undoubtedly depressions. Some of the markings -i 
circular, others square, some pentagonal, some hexagonal and Le 
others heptagonal. Broken specimens of Brightwellia Johnsoni = 
with like surface markings show the line of fracture running — 
through the areola. : 

Navicula rhomboides.— Individual frustules of this species iy ; 
considerably in degree of difficulty of resolution. Some of the 
smallest valves when mounted in balsam tax the powers of excel- 


mounted dry or in balsam to yield readily transverse striæ ae 
oblique illumination direct from the lamp. Under the sa stris. 
ditions an average valve exhibits well defined longitudinal si% 


MICROSCOPY. 813 


With the ammoni-sulphate cell it is instantly and clearly 
shown covered in every part with squares, like Pleurosigma 
Balticum. 

Navicula crassinervis.—The specimens of this variety, in my 
possession, are more difficult than Frustulia Saxonica and even 
rival A. pellucida under lamp illumination, but any clean frustule 
is satisfactorily resolved. 

sing monochromatic light with plain mirror and Wenham’s 
paraboloid, longitudinal lines are discovered. After careful manip- 
ulation both sets of lines are seen at the same time, and an ap- 
pearance of beading results. 

Navicula cuspidata.— Both sets of lines are easy, but the longi- 
tudinal are much closer together than the transverse. _Conse- 
quently the light interlinear spaces are elongated and no semblance 
of beading is to be seen. In diatoms where the intersecting striæ 
are of nearly equal fineness the little square spaces, when not well 
defined, seem circular, and if the illumination by transmitted light 
is intense they present a raised appearance due to refraction. 

Mr. Charles Stodder called my attention to this diatom with the 
view of ascertaining with the 5 whether or not the two sets of 
lines lie in different focal planes. My observations many tims 
repeated have convinced me that they are never both in focus at 
the same time, and further that the longitudinal lines are on the 
external surface and the transverse on the internal plate. If there 
are not two plates the lines may be on opposite surfaces of the 
same plate. 

White cloud illumination is found to be much better than other 
and more brilliant light for demonstrating these slight differences 
in focal distances. Many errors of interpretation are avoided by 
using an approximately central pencil when the instrument used 
is capable of elucidating all the details of structure without 
greater obliquity. 

Frustulia Saxonica.—In addition to my observation of longitudi- 
nal lines upon this test and resolution into dots (NATURALIST, 
July 1873, page 443) it may be worth noting that even with lamp 
illumination the ;1, has displayed the transverse much clearer than 
they appear in Dr. Woodward’s photo-print. (Lens, vol.i, p. 197.) 
With oblique light direct from a small German student’s lamp, 
without mirror, prism or condenser of any kind, a person entirely 
unaccustomed to the microscope could distinctly see them with 


314 MICROSCOPY. 


Beck No. 3 eye-piece, power 7,000 times. With the ammoni- — 
sulphate of copper cell the longitudinal lines and dots are dis- — 
played with ease. 

This is one of the most difficult test diatoms thus far studied, — 
ranking but little easier than A. pellucida, N. crassinervis and 
Nitzschia curvula. OE 

Amphipleura pellucida.—Many times the writer has been able — | 
to confirm the observations of longitudinal lines on this most 
difficult test shell, but never has succeeded in seeing the dots ex- _ 

cept with the blue cell and Wenham’s paraboloid, and only then 
under favorable circumstances. (See I. E. Smith, in “The 
Lens,” April, 1873, page 115. See also the Naruratist, May, 
1873, page 316.) When resolution is effected, the dots are ex 
ceedingly minute and uniform in size, showing as mere points of : 
light when magnified 2500 times. On one occasion the writer has ; 
seen fine dark lines crossing between the transverse striæ like j a 
steps of a ladder, the dots or spaces plainly longest in direction 
parallel with the median line, proving the longitudinal to be finer 
than the transverse lines. oe 

One obstacle in the way of resolution of the longitudinal striæ 
is the presence of diffraction lines. The valves being so narrow — 
increases this difficulty. Only after much time is wasted, and 
after many discouraging failures, will tlie patient observer rece! 
the reward of success. 

Nitzschia curvula Sm.—The unusual number of spurious aP- 
pearances in this object leads me to suspect that it possesses ^ 
complicated structure as yet beyond the reach of the instru pre 

The extreme fineness of the longitudinal lines as compared 
the transverse reminds one of the Navicula cuspidata, and a8 
is the case with the coarser shell, no efforts avail to develo?” 
semblance of beading. 

Striatella unipunctata.—Two sets of fine lines, meee 
rection of the light is changed, may be made to exhibit a 
beads or squares. In point of value as a test will be found 
approach Surirella gemma. : eq the : 

Grammatophora.—Of this genus the writer has examin s 
G. marina, Q. subtilissima and G. serpentina ; all of which a 
solved into hexagons. Broken specimens of G. marina shon 
line of fracture running through the hexagonal planes and 
points of the net-work projecting. The markings contin 7 


MICROSCOPY. 315 


pletely illustrated as the stage is resolved, in whatever direction 
the beam of light may fall. 

Stauroneis.— Some of the larger varieties of S. pheenicenteron 
are covered with hexagonal areole easily exhibited with central 
daylight. The projecting points of the fractured partitions be- 
tween the hexagons may be observed. 

Pleurosigma angulatum.—Hexagons. The line of fracture gen- 
erally running around them, but quite often through them. 

Pleurosigma Balticum, —A drop of water slowly advancing by 
capillary attraction shows this shell to be covered with squares, 
and proves that both sets of lines forming the boundaries of the 
squares are on the same surface of the valve; and the appearance 
presented by an air bubble on the other side proves that surface 
to be smooth. i 

Pleurosigma formosum.—Near the ends of the frustule it is 
easy under certain adjustments of the light to make it appear like 
a checker-board with alternate bright red and green squares. 
Double rows of green and red beads alternating may be seen on 
this as well as on other species of the same genus. (Dr. Pigott 
in M. M. Journal.) When we resort to central light from a white 
cloud, and thus lessen the liabilities to-err caused by refraction, 
diffraction, decomposition of light, and oblique projection of shad- 
ows, the conclusion is arrived at that these various appearances 
are caused by two sets of intersecting diagonal ridges, the finer 
ridges running up and down over and between the coarser, and 
subject to considerable variation even on the same frustule. This 
theory would also account for the “ beads ”(?) being of different 
Colors, and the same “ beads” changing color when the focus is 
changed. We see in many of the mollusks shell-markings of a 
similar character. 

Concluding remarks.—It would seem that the perfect box-like 
form of the shells of the Diatomaces and their elaborate orna- 
Mentation would exclude the idea of a blind process of chemical 
crystallization. Analogy should teach that they are secreted for a 
protective covering for the tender animal-like plant, as among 
higher forms. If this is true the surface markings ought to be so 
distributed as to give additional strength to the shell without 
greatly adding to its weight. It would also be expected that 
some of the larger shells would be perforated with holes. This 
idea, of course, would have to admit into the discussion consid- 


* 


316 NOTES. 


erations of habits of growth, and environments. Those contain 
in gelatinous envelopes should be less developed in strength of 
shell and bracing. Those growing on algze and in exposed local- : 
ities should be strong to resist fracture. On those moving free 
the bracing would be in proportion to the weakness of the shell; 
larger shells being relatively more liable to be broken. Here as 
elsewhere nature without waste of material combines utility with 

beauty.—G. W. MOREHOUSE. We 


Uxmountep Ossects.—At the request of a number of micros 
copists, Mr. Jno. H. Martin, of the Maidstone Micro-assay Lab 
oratory, has decided to establish an agency in this country for the 
distribution of his well-known unmounted objects. Persons desir- 


interesting materials at a tery small cost. A stock of objects will 
be kept for immediate distribution, and articles that may be out 
of stock furnished as soon as they can be obtained from abroad. 
Lists and objects can be obtained by addressing, by post, C. T 
Barpowix, Troy, N. Y. 


NOTES. 


A RARE opportunity is oat botanists or scientific institutions 
of purchasing the cryptogamic herbarium of Dr. Duby (author ¢ 
Botanicon Gallicum, ete.), containing the cellular eryptogams 
of all families except the mosses. a 

This collection contains first, in eighty-five packages, the hel 
barium of Dr. Wallroth, and includes all the species discov re 
by this savant and published in his “Cryptogamia Germanies 
also that of Nees von Esenbeck, containing the eryps* 
species of the different families (except the lichens and Hepa 
icæ, which will be mentioned farther on), including a large ? 
ber of fungi (among others almost all the species of Schwer 
algæ, etc., ete. Besides these are eighty large packages +, 
ing the fungi either gathered or received by himself. Among 
number are found the Hypoxyla in perfect order, enriched 
authentic specimens from Fries, Montague, F iickel, Ber 
Currey and Bischoff, perfectly named by them. In these P 
ages are found, among other things, the Lyeoperdinei, H ge 
Uredines, Mucedines, ete., described in his “Botanicon,’ 
publications. exotic fungi the herbarium contains 


ee 


7 a 


NOTES. $17 


of Carolina, published by Mr. Curtis; those of Java, collected by 
Mr. Zollinger, at Junghuha; those of Bahia, by Mr. Blanchet; 
those of Mexico, Guadaloupe, ete., ete., and a large number that 
have not yet been published. 

As to the lichens, there are thirty-five or forty enormous pack- 
ages classified by genera, in which are contained not only all 
those which have served for his “ Botanicon Gallicum” but those of 
Nees v. Esenbeck, Flowtow and others; besides large invoices 
of exotic and European lichens from Nylander, Körber, Zollinger 
and others. The Hepatic of Nees on which the genera and 
species of the Hepaticology of this savant have been established, 
not perfectly in order, are contained in twenty-six packages, 
classified and labelled, and one package not classified. Lastly the 
alge, studied with the greatest care, for his ‘‘ Botanicon” and 
subsequent works, either by himself or Mr. Cronan of Brest, 
enriched with a large number of drawings, composing thirty-five 
to sixty packages, in which are comprised the alge of Australia, 
Ceylon, the Pacific, United States (by Harvey) ; other specimens 
from various countries sent by various savants; the microscopic 
species of Brebisson and other micrographers. To all this must 
be added twenty-four cartons from M. Lamy de Perignam, con- 
taining many different cryptogams, studied and named by M. 
Montague, de Brebisson, etc. 

All these treasures which he has been accumulating for fifty 
years, and prepared for special work of his own, but which the 
study of bryology has caused him to abandon, he will sell for five 
thousand francs. 

As to the mosses the collection is still larger, but he will only 
sell it on condition that it shall remain in his hands during his 
life. 

We hope the time is coming when rare scientific treasures like 
these will be presented either to the Cambridge, or some other 
accessible herbarium in the United States, by generous persons of 
means. 


We reprint, from the “ N. Y. Tribune,” a portion of the report 
by Prof. E. Weiss of Vienna, who visited this country in 1872 for 
the purpose of acquainting himself with the condition of practical 
astronomy in the United States. The extract well represents 
Some of the causes that retard original investigation in the United 


Saas 
age E SS 


318 l NOTES. 


States, and applies as well to biology as to astronomy. We. 
look with a sort of dismay upon the future of biological science : 
in America, so few are the earnest, self-sacrificing students who 
are devoting themselves to histology, embryology and experi- 
mental biology. When the fortunate moment arrives, that our 
flora and fauna are worked up, we hope for what the French 
would call serious work. Meantime the appeals now before the 
public, in behalf of the Anderson School of Natural History and 

the Zoological Museum at Cambridge, we trust will produce son 
results. i 


“ On the other hand, of much greater importance is it that, in 
general, almost all scientific institution ns in America feel the want 
of workers of every kind, and, in many cases, this want arises not 
so _ from financial as from social relations For the ge 


= are pgs ARTUR in the endeavor to earn his own live 

sO s possible. This latter trait of character, which most 
Sinantiy hinders the ne of year-long earnest studies, is cer- | 
tainly the fundamental reason ry scientific growth p 
respond to the necess ii This is the case, notwithstanding 
fact that Americans are in no wa y di isinclined towards the scienc 
but, on the contrary, very highly esteem both them and the m 
that cultivate them, as is shown by the above-mentioned numer 


from a a 
deficiency of persons to execute the subordinate drudgery; 
that, again, because of a fati onal peculiarity. For a ge 
would rather subject himself to the severest bodily labor for bes 


since, in the latter case, he must obey the orde 
and this he views as a deprivation of his individual freedom 


Max Scnutrze, the distinguished German anatomist ar: 
tologist, is dead. He was the editor of the well known ‘ 
fir Microscopiche Anatomie,” devoted largely to the nat 
the tissues and to the infusoria. He wrote also on the embry’ 
and anatomy of the worms, of echinoderms and hydroid m 
and on the foraminifera. He was born in 1825, and died i . 
prime of life, at Bonn, having just had completed for his us 
said, the — mà most elegantly constructed 7 
Europe. 


NOTES. 319 


Tue “ Miscellaneous Publications” of the U. S. Geological Sur- 
vey of the Territories are as follows. No.1. List of Elevations 
west of the Mississippi, by H. Gannet. 2. (Unpublished). 3. 
Ornithology of the Territories, by Dr. Elliott Coues (to be issued 
in May). 4. Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado, by Porter and 
Coulter. 5. Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of the survey, 
for the years 1869 to 1873, inclusive. 


Tue Boston Society of Natural History is to republish Hentz’s 
papers on North American Spiders, to be edited by Mr. E. Bur- 
gess, with notes and two new plates by Mr. J. H. Emerton, as 
No. 2 of the “Occasional Papers.” The work will contain about 
one hundred pages, and have nineteen plates, and the price will 
be $3.00 or $3.50. 


In the April number of the Narurauist I find my name ap- 
pears as the botanist of the Wheeler expedition of 1873, to the 
exclusion of my good friend Prof. John Wolf. This has been by 
accidental omission, I am sure, on the part of the writer of the 
article in question. I did have a certain connection with the 
botanical collection, but the bulk of the work done in that de- 
partment was by Prof. Wolf, whose conscientious labor cannot be 
too highly commended.— J. T. Rorurocx. 


Tur friends of the late Professor Agassiz, the friends of educa- 
tion, propose to raise a memorial to him, by placing upon a strong 
and enduring basis the work to which he devoted his life, the 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, which is at once a collection of 
natural objects, rivalling the most celebrated collections of the Old 
World, and a school open to all the teachers of the land. 

It is proposed that the teachers and pupils of the whole country 
take part in this memorial, and that on the birthday of Agassiz, 
the 28th day of May, 1874, they shall each contribute something, 
however small, to the Teachers’ and Pupils’ Memorial Fund, in 
honor of Louis Agassiz; the fund to be kept separate, and the 
income to be applied to the expenses of the Museum. 

All communications and remittances for the ‘Teachers’ and 
- Pupils’ Fund” of the “ Agassiz Memorial,” may be sent to the 
Treasurer, James M. Barnard, Room 4, No. 13 Exchange Street, 
Boston. 


Will not every subscriber to the Naruratist contribute his or 
her mite to this great object? 


320 BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Tue Anderson School of Natural History will open July 7 
close August 29. We learn that over ninety applications hi 
been made above the number which can be accommodated. 
in itself is an appeal to the people to sustain the school. 1 
funds of the school are nearly exhausted in erecting the building 
and preparing the necessary outfit. The Director of the scho 
Mr. Alexander Agassiz, now asks the coöperation of all 


spective states, or from other means at the disposal of 
Boards of Education, a moderate appropriation say of Him 


as students at Penikese. 
The following gentlemen will have charge of instruction 
their respective departments :—Prof. B. G. Wilder (Vertebra 


S. Morse and Hamlin (Mollusks), E. Bicknell (Microscopy), 
lectures will be delivered by Mr. A. Agassiz on Radiates and 
bryology, Prof. A. M. Meyer, on Physiological Physics and 
Theodore Lyman on Pisciculture. The laboratories wi 

charge of Mr. Garman. Dr. Packard and Mr. Garman will 
charge of the dredging expeditions. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 
<n. z. A Lecture delivered before the Louisville Literary Association by J. P- 
‘0, 
a e j instal dis iioii dba te Augsburg. ppi pp. 138, 


Bulletin Mensue l de la Societe de 'Acclimatation. 8vo, vol. 10. Nos. 10 and Il, 

Pr gg S of the Imperial Botanical Garden of St. Petersburg. 8V0, VOL. i, Pt. Pid ! 

nthropologie, 4to, vol, vi, Pt.3. Bramsschweig, 1873. 

ifi zur ee ae Hunderyah Bestehens der Gesellschaft Na 

Freunde zu Berlin. 4to vol.. Pp. 264, with 20 plates. Pract sae No. 
Jahrbuch der Kaiserlich-koniglichen geologischen Gesells chaji. "8yo, vol. xxiii, 

ocietatıs Entomologicae Rossicae. 8yo, vol. vili, Nos. 3 and 4, 2 plates. Vol. is 

Peter nesters Gaare Hondale-und Geerbehammer'se Lint ero, aah de 

rosterrei els-un ewer am y i 

Bericht der Hi — Gewerbekammer Oberosterreichs eu Linz 

erhaltnisse der Industrie, des Handels und 
ue. 8yo; No. 96, 

apertaly thoe we west of "Praiashka. 


Bye Ni Toner and John M. 
saes al and Geographie al Survey Fasasi 

ations; si 4, rs s of the Fi ora of, "Colorado, eset 

Py, ington, ofthe Ter boa Vor n years | 


eal Burvey 


i ton here Washin, ss n, 1874. i, Hefte 
mene DE AE T Satur ieissenchajien- o, Bd. i, 


: 
` 


T EL 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vol. VIII.—JUNE, 1874.— No. 6. 
ece OD I~ 


THE PRESERVATION OF CATERPILLARS BY 
INFLATION. 


BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER. 


* 


Many persons are deterred from collecting caterpillars, by the 
difficulty and expense of preserving them in the ordinary way. 
The easy and inexpensive method of blowing up and mounting the 
pellicle is so little known in this country, that at the last meeting 
of the Americam Association, only one entomologist besides my- 
self had ever seen the operation; since then, others have tried it 
and been delighted with its simplicity. In the hope of inducing 
all our entomologists to experiment for themselves, the following 
explanation of the process has been prepared. 

It should be premised that caterpillars may be prepared in this 
way so as to retain their colors far better than by any other method 
and often to be fit subjects at any subsequent time for the artist’s 
pencil; the most delicate processes may be preserved uninjured, 
and the examination of hairy or spiny appendages made even more 
readily than during life. Specimens taken from spirits, unless 
absolutely naked, are always difficult to examine from the matting 
of the hairs; and the internal organs can seldom be studied, even 
in the rudest manner, unless the greatest care has been bestowed 
upon their preservation ; in fact, no specimen can be fitted by any 
Process, for the study of both internal and external organizations, 
and for the latter, no method of preparation compares with that 
of inflation. 

Bounce, i the Oaea of the Lioraviad of Congress ai Wasinpi © SADODY ACADEMY OF 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 21 ‘ (RD 


322 PRESERVATION OF CATERPILLARS BY INFLATION. 


The instruments necessary for the operation, besides the tools 
in the hands of every entomologist, are a small tin oven, a spirit 
lamp, a pair of finely pointed scissdrs, a bit of rag, a little fine 
wire and a straw. 


fe 
R 
3 


bere i Rare TE E T. ue ae 


of the box is perforated by a circular hole 1} inches in diameter. 
It would be well to have this end of glass, and the opposite end 


Fig. 77. 


7 the standard 
Fa higher than the back as he 
Kidd has shown in the sketch. Mi 

also proposes a movable wh 
loop indicated in the woodcut by the dotted line;* but this would 
seem superfluous. 
The wire should be very fine and annealed ; ‘the best is- 
wound with green thread and used for artificial flowers. Tt s% 


* The mae a ales R aaa n af the ovele 
1 g : 


v d 


PRESERVATION OF CATERPILLARS BY INFLATION. 823 


not be more than half à millimetre iņ diameter ; the cut represents 
it magnified nineteen diameters (Fig. 77). 

The straw. Mr. Goossens of Paris, my courteous instructor in 
this art, who possesses a collection of nearly a thousand species 
of inflated caterpillars, uses nothing but ordinary wheat straw, 
choosing stout, dry pieces of various sizes, the cross section of 
which is perfectly circular; with these he inflates the smallest 
micros and the largest sphingide. Various modifications have 
been suggested ; a glass tube drawn to a fine point, and provided 
with a pair of spring clips to attach to the caterpillar, is a favorite 
form; the Germans use this largely, and sometimes attach the 
caterpillar by threads passed around the anal prolegs. Dr. Le- 

onte informs me that- Dr. Gemminger uses a finely pointed tube 
with an elastic bulb attached like a rubber syringe. Mr. Riley 
suggests (as his drawing represents) still another mode, which is 
to pierce a piece of soft wood along the grain with a fine heated 
wire and then sharpen toa point the tube thus formed, to bein- 
serted in the caterpillar; a tube is also inserted in. the other end 
(see Fig. 76). For myself I prefer the simple straw. 

The operation. Kill the subject by a drop of ether or by a 
Plunge in spirits; if it be a hairy caterpillar it should remain at 
least half an hour in alcohol and then rest on bibulous paper for 
forty-eight hours; otherwise the hairs drop off in the subsequent 
operation. Then placing the caterpillar in the left hand, so as to 
expose its hinder extremity beyond the gently closed thumb and 
first two fingers, enlarge the vent slightly at the lower edge by a 
vertical cut with the scissors; next lay the larva either upon bib- 
ulous paper on the table, or upon soft cotton cloth held in the left 
hand, and press the extremity of the body with one finger, always 
with the interposition of cloth or paper, so as to force out any of 
the contents of the rectum ; this process is continued from points 
successively farther back, a slight additional portion of the con- 
tents of the body being gently pressed out with each new move- 
ment ; throughout all this process, great care should be taken lest 
the skin should be abraded by too violent pressure, and lest any of 
the contents of the body soil its exterior or become entangled in 
the hairs or spinés ; to avoid the latter, the caterpillar should be 

i frequently removed to a clean part of the cloth or paper. When 


324 PRESERVATION OF CATERPILLARS BY INFLATION. 


a portion of the intestinal tube itself becomes extended it sho 
be seized with a pair of strong forceps, and, the head remaining 


The alcohol lamp is now lighted and placed in position beneath 
the oven; a straw is selected, of the proper size to enter the 
larged vent, and the tip, after being cut diagonally with sharp 
scissors, is moistened a little in the mouth (to prevent too g 
adhesion of the skin to the straw) and carefully introduced into 
the opening of the caterpillar ; the process may be aided by blow- 
ing gently through the straw. When the skin is slipped upon: 
sides of the straw to the distance of nearly a quarter of an inch, 
without any folding of the skin and so that both the anal prolegs 
protrude, a delicate pin (Edelston and Williams, No. 19, is 
is passed through the anal plate and the straw. 
By this time the oven will be sufficiently heated to comme 
the drying process, which consists simply in keeping the cae, 
pillar in the oven extended horizontally upon the straw by blowing 
gently and steadily through the straw, as one uses a blow-pil T 
Too forcible inflation will make the caterpillar unsightly by dis- 
tending unnaturally any spot that may have been we 
bruised in the previous operation ; the caterpillar should be m 
slowly but constantly turning, and no harm will result from withe 
drawing the creature from the oven and allowing it to collapse, t0 
gain breath or rest; only this relaxation should be very 
The caterpillar should be first introduced into the oven while 
flated by the breath, and so placed that the hinder extremity 
be in the hottest part, directly above the flame, for it, is es 
that the animal should dry from behind forward; yet not 
gether, for as soon as the hinder part has begun to stiffen ( 
can readily be detected by withholding the breath for 2 8è 
the. portion next in front should receive partial attention and 
caterpillar moved backward and forward, round and rout 
the flame. During this process any tendency of the cate 
assume unnatural positions may be corrected — at least 1n | 
by withdrawing it from the oven and manipulating it; d 


PRESERVATION OF CATERPILLARS BY INFLATION. ' S25 


flation, the parts about the head should be the last to dry and 
should be kept over the flame until a rather forcible touch will not 
cause it to bend. 

To secure the best results it is essential that the oven should not 
be too hot, the flame should not be more than an inch high and its — 
tip should be one or two inches from the bottom of the oven. 

When the skin of the caterpillar will yield at no point, it is ready 
for mounting. The pin is removed from the straw and the cater- 
pillar skin, which often adlieres to the straw, must be gently re- 
moved with some delicate, blunt instrument or with the finger nail. 

A piece of wire a little more than twice the length of the cater- 
pillar is next cut, and, by means of forceps, bent as in Fig. 77, 
the tips a little incurved ; a little shellac * is placed at the distal 
extremity of the loop, the wire is held by the forceps just beyond 
this point, so as to prevent the free ends of the wire from spread- 
ing, and they are introduced into the empty body of the cater- 
pillar as far as the forceps will allow ; holding the loop and gently 
opening the forceps, the caterpillar is now pushed over the wire 
with extreme care, until the hinder extremity has passed half-way 
over the loop and the shellac has smeared the interior sufficiently 
to hold the caterpillar in place when dry; the extremities of the 
parted wires should reach nearly to the head. Nothing remains 
but to curve the doubled end of the wire tightly around a pin with 
a pair of strong forceps and to place the specimen, properly 
labelled, in a place where it can dry thoroughly for two or three 
days before removal to the cabinet. 

For more careful preservation and readier handling Mr. Goossens 
employs a different method, placing each specimen in a glass tube, 
like the test tube of the chemist. The wire is first bent in the 
middle and the bent end inserted in a hole bored in the smaller 
end of a cork of suitable size, so as nearly to pass through it; the 
loops are then formed as above; both ends of the cork are var- 
nished, and a label pasted around the portion of the cork which 
enters the tube, thus guarding both specimen and label from dust, 
and the latter from loss or misplacement. After two or three days 
the cork with the caterpillar attached is placed in its corresponding 
tube and the tube may be freely handled. 


* To prepare this, the sheets of dark shellac should be preferred to the light, and dis- 
Solved in forty per cent. alcohol, 


326 © THE CYPRINOIDS OF CENTRAL NEW JERSEY. 


Modifications of this system will occur to every one. - Dr. 


for the inflation of the emptied skin. For an oven, the Vi 
entomologists employ an ordinary gas-chimney open at both end 
and inserted in a sand bath, which prevents perhaps the danger of — 
too great heat. i 


NOTES ON THE CYPRINOIDS OF CENTRAL 
| NEW JERSEY. 


BY CHARLES C. ABBOTT, M. D. 


Tue family of fishes known scientifically as the Cyprinidæ, and 
popularly as “shiners” and “minnows,” is well represented in the 
Delaware river and its tributaries. A careful study of the seve 
species of cyprinoids found in the immediate vicinity of Trent "I 
N. J., convinces us how difficult it is to define clearly the di 
tinctive characters of many of these fishes, even with a very l 


and fin arrangement being especially noticeable. Thereiol 
while we have ventured to describe, as new to science, a small 
prinoid, collected by us, for the first time, during the season 
_ 1873, we have purposely confined our notes to the species 6" 
ered here in large numbers, and not included in several small 
lections received from other portions of the state. © 
therefore, we propose to give the full list of species, found in ’ 
a small fraction of the state’s territory, we believe it really pr 
the entire cyprinoidal fauna of the state. 
In his admirable synopsis,* Prof. Cope mentions twelve sp 
of six genera, belonging to the Delaware and its tributaries. ~ 
study of the material at our command enables us to ie Re 
without difficulty, all of these as described and figured in Oe 
_ nopsis referred to; but there is also, it must be mentioned 
specimens that we have considered as species, as defined by 
Cope, in which variations exist, that are of sufficient MP" 
_ it would seem, to make them even more than marked va 
-~ * Synopsis of the Cyprinidw of Pennsylvania: Transactions of America® 
- Boc., vol, xiii, 


THE CYPRINOIDS OF CENTRAL NEW JERSEY. 327 


varieties that, seen from an evolution standpoint, are well ad- 
vanced to that point, where the ‘‘species” commences and the 
“variety” ends. To some of these instances, we will call partic- 
ular attention elsewhere, and remark here that, besides the twelve 
species given by Cope, there are included four well marked species, 
of genera not included in the list referred to, being Hybognathus* 


Agassiz, Albernellus Girard, and Hyborhynchus Agassiz, these 


making the number of genera, nine, that are represented in the 
Delaware fauna. 

So far as our investigations have enabled us to determine, the 
cyprinoids of the Delaware River, at the head of tide water, and 
in the neighboring streams, are as follows :— 

1. Semotilus rhotheus Cope. “Chub.” This is our largest and, 
in the river, our most abundant species. Although the males, in 
spring, are then most highly colored, they do not become at any 
season dull or leaden tinted. We have noticed that the variety of 
tints and general ruddy tinge of the whole fish vary considerably, 
in different streams; the milky, turbid waters of clay creeks ap- 
pearing to have the effect of keeping down the rich colors that 


make this fish so beautiful from March to J une, when found in the ` 


river or clear spring brooks. Some peculiarities of its coloring 
fade almost immediately, and others change in hue, on taking the 
fish from the water. The first published description of this fish, 
detailed the colors of a living specimen, which accounts, we sup- 
pose, for the difference in the general appearance as given by us, 
and as noticed by Prof. Cope, t when examining dead specimens. 
The largest specimen we have met with weighed 1 Ib. 14 oz. 

‘2. Semotilus corporalis (Mitchill). This “chub” is also an in- 
habitant of several little brooks, sometimes reaching considerable 
size, but never attaining the dimensions of S. rhotheus. As we 
have often noticed with reference to allied species of fishes, so in 
this instance ; we do not find them i. e., the two species of Semo- 


tilus associated in small streams, nor intimately so, in the river, — 


Besides the marked difference in color, the smaller scales at, once 
make evident the great difference between this and the preceding ; 
which is much more nearly allied to the northern Semotilus argen- 
teus Putnam (Leucosomus pulchellus Girard, et auct.) ‘In Gun- 


* Synopsis of fishes of North Carolina: Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. ii, p. 466. 
t Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1861, p. 154. fl. c. p. 564. : 


- 


828 THE CYPRINOIDS OF CENTRAL NEW JERSEY. 


ther’s Catalogue of Fishes,” vol. vii, we find a specimen recorded, 
of S. rhotheus, from the Delaware River ; and considered the same 
as Semotilus argenteus Putnam. As the specimen is marked 
“ Adult,” it seems strange such an error should have occurred. 
3. Rhinichthys nasutus (Ayres). Both from the limited number 
of streams, in which it is found, and from the few individu i 
which occur, this is preëminently our rarest species. ; 
4. Rhinichthys atronasus (Mitchill). ‘‘Dace.” There are but- 
few streams, except in the northern portion of the state, where 
this pretty species may be found. Generally, we have met with | 
it, associated with the young Semotilus corporalis, and both it and 
the latter were remarkably successful in escaping from a scoop-nety 
by burrowing under stones, with all the ease of a Melanura in the 
soft mud; or else by leaping several inches from the water, and 
so passing over the rim of the net. i 
5. Stilbe Americana (Lind). “Roach.” DeKay has described 
as two generically distinct fishes,* under the names of “ Variegated” 
Bream” Abramis versicolor, and “New York Shiner” Stilbe chr 
soleucas, the cyprinoid designated above as Stilbe Americana. The : 
two varieties, which are not simply varieties in color, are noms 
conceded to be the same species, and it seems strange that DeKay 
should have considered these variations of more than , 
value, when now it is not accorded even that importance. On 
studying the descriptions and figures above referred to, and insti- 
tuting a comparison of these with a very large number of speci- 
mens of this fish, we have satisfied ourselves that there exists 
well marked tendency to vary in this fish, which verges nearh, 
that line, beyond which a variety becomes technically a species- 
DeKay’s figure, on plate 29, is an excellent representation of the 
common “roach,” as we find it in quiet waters and the t 
streams of this state. Color, which properly goes for but li l 
in the study of the specific differences of fishes, merits mom 
` tention in this case, from the fact that there is not any deoi 
deepening of, or variation in, the tints, in the spring Or REPY 
dress, as compared with that of autumn or winter. In the 
of DeKay’s description of Abramis versicolor, we have 2 i eat 
species described, which suggests at once a fish taken 10% | 
spring, when the cyprinoids, as a class, are in brightest colors ; 8% 
_ however is not the case with the Stilbe Americana, as when 
*Fishes of N. Y., p. 191, pl. 32, fig. 103; p. 204, pl. 29, fig. 91. 


THE CYPRINOIDS OF CENTRAL NEW JERSEY. 329 


examine the figure of Abramis versicolor, we find a fish varying in 
the size and shape of its fins also. 

n studying the very large collection of specimens of the 
“roach,” from streams of different character, made during the 
past summer, we think we have traced a uniform variation in 
the size and shape of the fins, more especially of the dorsal and 
ventrals; and with it, a constant difference of the color of the 
Stilbes taken in small, rapidly running streams, and the ordinary 
“roach” of our mill-ponds and quiet creeks. These differences, 
in some respects, agree with the distinctions drawn by DeKay be- 
tween the Stilbe chrysoleucas and Abramis versicolor, but not in all. 
Indeed, we have never met with a “roach” that was strictly iden- 
tical with the fish described by DeKay as a “‘ variegated bream.” 

The variations we have traced out in a large series, and which 
we believe to be constant, are as follows :— 


Delaware River specimens. 


Adult, total length,* 74 in. 
Dorsal fin, depressed, reach- 
point opposite the 


line drawn through the pupil. 


Scales with 7 to 12 radii. 


olor as described by DeKay . 


yellow, with black lines on the 
dorsal and caudal fins. 


Shabbaconk Creek specimens. 


Adult (?), total length 5 in. 
Dorsal fin, depressed, reach- 
ing to a point opposite the last 


ral depressed, 
iiia to the anus. 


Mouth more oblique; when 
closed, the front of the lips on 
a line with the upper edge of 
the orbit. 

Scales with 4 to 5 radii. 

Color uniformly blue, with 
no shade of green or golden; 
lighter on belly, but scarcely 
silvery. Fins pale yellow, but 
at no time crimson or golden. 


In order not to mislead the student, it must be clearly under- 
stood, that while the specimens of Stilbe from the Shabbaconk 
reek are uniformly different, as here pointed out, we do find 
“river” specimens, which are partially grown individuals of the 


n the 4th yol. NATURALIST we have referred to the pe of having gathered many 
es eight and nine inabot, long. Compared with the whole number of individ- 
i i easurements are iet Eee and the length above 


given is about that of the psn adult fish. 


330 THE CYPRINOIDS OF CENTRAL NEW JERSEY. 


typical Stilbe Americana, that in some respects approach c 
to the variety characteristic of the Shabbaconk and other cla 
creeks. But the variations we have described cannot be ascribed 
simply to age, especially the uniform blue color of clay creek 
viduals. 
Do we not here have an instance of adaptation to particular 
localities ; even to the change of color? It has often been asserted 
that we never see a species undergoing a radical change; but is 
not this an instance of such change, one possibly now of “ 
cific” value, as a “species” was once considered? The color 
the waters, in bulk, is bluish; and it has occurred to us that the 
blue color of these clay-creek roach may have been created 
evolved, for their better protection from our ravenous kingfishers 
(Ceryle alcyon), who swallow them without any preliminary 
ing, as they are said not to do,* in other sections of the country 
We have noticed, in fact, that this fish is a favorite prey of 
kingfisher; and as each species of fish appears to have its own 
peculiar odor, when alive, we have thought that this fish 
through its odor (and flavor?) attractive to this bird; and when 
inhabiting shallow streams, and so exposed the more to its 4 
tacks, how natural to see, in the changed color, a means of pro- 
tection as an offset, as it were, to its attractions in odor 
flavor. . 
6. Hypsilepis cornutus (Mitchill). ‘‘Red-fin.” Our “ red-fin 
appears to be in all respects identical with the New England 
as figured by Dr. Storer.ț Young specimens are much less roon 
than the figure referred to, but the variations we have noticed, 
examining a large series, appear to be all due to age. | 
Besides the deeper coloring and numerous tubercles upon the 
snout, the males of this species vary from the females in 2 sto 
body and somewhat more elevated dorsal outline; features W 
are permanent and uniform. : 
7. Hypsilepis analostanus (Girard). ‘Silver-fin.” This be 
ful little fish is a constant companion of the preceding os 
partial study of its habits, by means of the aquarium, has ¢ 
strated, however, that it is a more carnivorous fish, and not ¢ ; 
= Were specimens noticed to tear away the fins of each other an 


“Natl 
1+ NATURALIST for Oct. 1873, p. 634. (Mr. Breed here refers to a note in 
Aand not the NATURALIST, as printed ; 
- tFishes of Mass., p. p. 118, pl. xxi, fig. ‘ 


THE CYPRINOIDS OF CENTRAL NEW JERSEY. 331 


other cyprinoids, but larger ones even killed and devoured adult 
specimens of Hybopsis bifrenatus. 

8. Clinostomus funduloides Girard. We have, during the past 
summer, met with single specimens of this last mentioned cy- 
prinoid, associated with other small fishes, on several occasions. 
They are identical with specimens in the Museum of the Academy 
of Sciences, at Philadelphia; marked by Prof. Cope, from tribu- 
taries of the Susquehanna River, Penn. 

-9. Hybopsis bifrenatus Cope. ‘Minnow.’ This little fish, 
characterized by an imperfect lateral line, and deep straw color 
and black markings, is probably our most abundant species of this 
genus. 

10. Hybopsis chalybeus Cope. ‘‘ Minnow.” This species, which 
much resembles the preceding, has a complete lateral line. It is 
not uncommon, and usually met with, associated with the other 
small Hybopses. 

11. Hybopsis procne Cope. “Minnow.” To quote Prof. Cope, 
“This small species may be readily distinguished among others 
common in our streams, by its long caudal peduncle and tail, its 
large brown-edged dorsal scales and plumbeous lateral band.” 

The first mentioned of these three species of Hybopsis is every-- 
where, in New Jersey, exceedingly abundant, and supplies the 
carnivorous fishes with an unfailing supply of food. In a collec- 
tion of Hybopses before us, we find the three species represented 
in the following proportion, and believe this to be about their rela- 
tive abundance in the Delaware and tributaries, at this point. 

Whole number of specimens, 123. 


Of H. bifrenatus, . $ è 3 š 75 specimens. 
"S chalabeus, . ‘ : š 22 vie 


zoe procne, ‘ : i ` . 26 = 


In identifying the above series of small minnows, we have been 
guided solely by Cope’s synopsis, to which we have so frequently 
referred. While we believe we are correct in our identifications 
_of the three species, we must here mention that there were some 
individuals of this series (and it holds good of every collection 
we have made, of small Hybopses) which we found it difficult to 
determine, as to their specific relations, that were in fact neither 
_ bifrenatus nor chalybeus, and, as we believe, not the young of 
other fishes.: In a series of a thousand individuals, one will be 


332 THE CYPRINOIDS OF CENTRAL NEW JERSEY. 


pretty sure of finding intermediate forms, which link these three 
Hybopses very closely. This presence of intermediate forms is — 
not confined, however, to these small minnows. - In every large 
collection of cyprinoids we have yet made, there occurred some in- 
dividuals, that varied in one or more directions from typical forms, — 
and yet not in such a manner as to indicate probably permanen 
specific or generic peculiarities. ; 
12. Hybopsis Hudsonius (Clinton). ‘‘Spawn eater.” This inter: 


cies are characteristic; both those of DeWitt Clinton,* who first 
described this fish, and that given by DeKay,t are quite accurate, 
. and give the best representations of it we have seen. Prof. Cope’s} 5 
figure of “ Hybopsis Hudsonius” we believe to be that of the fol- 
lowing species, as will appear. At all events, it isa much more 
marked variety of the true Hudsonius, than the small blue Stille 
we have described is of the typical S. Americana. Of the true 
H. Hudsonius, DeKay writes: “It is called “‘spawn-eater,” from 
an idea entertained by fishermen that it lives exclusively on the — 
spawn of other fishes.” This belief has no doubt arisen from the 
‘fact of its having a “‘sucker”-like habit of feeling carefully over 
the bottom of the stream with its peculiar ‘‘ telescopic” mouth ex- 
tended, and so sucking up such food as it finds to its liking. The 
examination of the stomachs of many specimens shows that, 
the Stilbe Americana, it feeds very largely on small mollusca, 
cover every stone and other stationary object in the beds of our 
streams. We do not think the charge of spawn-eating can be 
laid to tbis fish with more reason than to all the other cyprinoids- 
Indeed, without an exception, the ova of all other fishes are, t0 
every species of fish, a luscious morsel; and we are inclined to i 
think that many fish are so far unnatural (?) as to devour the 
newly-laid ova of their own kind. i 
The very blunt snout, almost at right angles with the forehead, 
gives this fish an abrupt profile, which, especially when living ™ 
are compared, is a ready method of distinguishing this pe 
from the closely allied Hybopsis phaénna Cope, with its more © 
pered, regular profile, 


Ẹ 


Ẹ 


* Annals Lyceum of Nat. History of N. Y. Vol. 1, p. 49, pl. 2, fig. 2 
t Fishes of New York, p. 206, pl. xxxiv, fig. 109. Vol. 1 
+ Synopsis of Cyprinidw of Penn. Pl. xii, fig. 3. (Trans. Am. Phil. $0¢ "°" ™ 


THE CYPRINOIDS OF CENTRAL NEW JERSEY. 333 


13. Hybopsis phaénna Cope. Prof. Cope* has described the cy- 
prinoid here referred to as a distinct form of Hybopsis, having 
received specimens, collected by the writer, in 1864. He says, 
“ Hybopsis phaénna is a species, found in some of the tributaries of 
the Delaware, which I have received from Trenton, N. J -, from my 
friend Charles C. Abbott. It is more elongate in form than H. 
Hudsonius and H. Storerianus, and has not the rounded front of the 
first or small compressed head of the last., Eye a little less than 
one-third length of head ; latter 54 times to concavity of tail, and 
more than equal greatest depth of. body...... Angle of 
mouth not posterior to anterior nostril. Scales $, 38. Lateral 
line very slightly deflected opposite the dorsal fin. Base of caudal 
to posterior edge of dorsal, equal from latter to beginning of the 
skin of the head. D. 1-8; C. 19; V. 1-8; B: 1-95: P. 15; 
Length 4 inches.” 

The differences between the two, H. Hudsonius and H. phaënna, 
which'are quite uniform and readily noticed in living specimens, 
are as follows: 

,  Hybopsis Hudsonius. Hybopsis phaénna. 
Snout blunt. Angular in 
profile. 

Diameter of orbit less than 

length of snout. 


Snout tapering. Curved in 
profile. 

Diameter of orbit more than 
length of snout. 


Anal fin, depressed, reaches Ventral fin, depressed, does 
to the anus. 7 not reach the anus. 

Bright silvery stripe along Plumbeous stripe along the 
the lateral line, golden pos- lateral line; and four narrow 
teriorly, and uniform olive- blue lines between the dorsal 


green from dorsal stripe to stripe and lateral line. 
lateral line. 


Prof. Cope, in his monograph of Pennsylvania cyprinoids, says 
“ There may still be some question as to the pertinence of this 
specimen (from the Delaware, at Trenton, N. J.) to H. Hudsonius,” 
he having referred it to that pecies then, and subsequently 
there no specimens of the cyprinoid found in the Delaware that 
were precisely such as described by De Witt Clinton, then it might 
be thought that the H. phaénna was simply a modified form of 
that species; but the two being associated, each preserving the 
distinctive features, as pointed out by us, with the non-occurrence 
oe naka cdl ch 


* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1864, p. 279. 


334 THE CYPRINOIDS OF CENTRAL NEW JERSEY. 


of individuals, that by less pronounced features link the f 
leaves little ground for doubting their being really, specifica 
distinct. It should be remembered, also, that the H. pha 
reaches a larger size than the H. Hudsonius, here in the Delawai 
and the “more conic form” of the snout cannot be ascribed 
maturer age, as has been done by Prof. Cope. Specimens thr 


H. 
half inches long, have the tapering profile, much as in the drawin 
given by Prof. Cope, and above referred to. In conclusion, 
must add that, in the figure given by Clinton, the circular b 
spot at the base of the caudal is a very marked feature. 
says in his description, “no spot at base of tail.” Now we be 
the truth to be, that the H. phaénna is also to be i 
the absence of the caudal spot, which we have never failed to 
on typical specimens of the H. Hudsonius. 3 
14. Alburnellus amænus Abbott. The discovery of this b 
tiful cyprinoid makes the second instance of a genus being re 
sented in the Delaware and Ohio rivers, and not in pos 
Fig. 78. 


Alburnus amenus. Natural size. 
termediate river system of the Susquehanna. It was first 
with, by the writer, in the summit level of the Delaware and ! 
itan canal, associated with Hybopsis Hudsonius, H. 
Hypsilepis analostanus and Hy. cornutus. 

We give the following descfiption of the species with 
(Fig. 78). Head shorter and broader than Alburnelli ge 
with the profile less pointed anteriorly to the orbit. Orbit 
equal to length of the muzzle, and entering length of head 
times; but a trace less than the interorbital space. ™ 
~ times in length to basis of caudal; greatest depth, four 
thirds (44) times to same. — 
| Phe figure was engraved without correction of the drawing on the block 


+ 


THE CYPRINOIDS OF CENTRAL NEW JERSEY. 335 


Pharyngeal teeth 1,4—4,1; moderately hooked, and with a 
narrow masticatory surface, more noticeable on one specimen ex- 
amined than on the other. The single tooth of the series is in 
all respects similar to the others, but only half the size. Occasion- 
ally the series is 2,4—4,2, as in .Alburnellus rubrifrons Cope. 
Anterior ray of dorsal slightly posterior to-the insertion of the 
last rays of yentrals. The anterior ray equals in length the pos- 
terior margin (terminal) of the fin. Terminal ray slightly in ad- 
vance of the anterior ray of anal fin. Anal fin broad, the base 
equalling the length of the anterior ray. Terminal margin of the 
fin slightly concave in outline. The pectoral fins terminate at a 
distance of three scales’ width from the insertion of the ventrals. 
Terminal margin of the ventrals opposite fifth ray of the dorsal. 

Lateral line decurved from the upper angle of the opercular ap- 
paratus, and continues in a slightly oblique direction to some dis- 
tance beyond the dorsal fin, and not rising again opposite that fin 
and continuing straight to the caudal fin, as in Alburnus rubellus 
Agassiz. D.1-8;A.1-11. Scales 5-39-3. Total length, 34 
inches. Color, pale olive above, with minute black dots on the 


_ exposed edges of the scales. A bright silvery band three scales 
wide at the operculum, and narrowing to a width of one and one- 


half scales at the base of the caudal fin. Operculum and iris 
pure silvery. Belly white, but not with a metallic gloss. 

he specimens taken were collected late in August, and the 
colors noted while they were in an aquarium. At present they are 
rare, both in the river and its several tributaries, and we are con- 
fident that we have never seen them previous to last summer, al- 
though accustomed carefully to collect-and study our various small 


fishes for the past dozen years ; and from the fact of finding it only 


in the canal, which has an unobstructed outlet into the Raritan 
River, 25 miles east of the Delaware, it may be that the fish in 
question is properly a species belonging to that river. It was in 


. this stream that the following species was first met with, in 1870; 


and now, as will appear, it is a very abundant species in some of the 
Delaware tributaries ; probably derived from the Raritan River, 
through the communication opened by the canal referred to. 

15. Hybognathus osmerinus Cope. This very interesting species 
was discovered by the writer, associated with our common smelt 
or “frost fish” (Osmerus viridescens Mitchill) from the Raritan 


River, at New Brunswick, N. J. It was first described by Prof. 


336 THE CYPRINOIDS OF CENTRAL NEW JERSEY. 


Cope,* from a specimen we sent him, and has since been f 
by the writer.t During the interval, from the time of first 
tecting this peculiar species until the present summer, we 
never met with even a single specimen ; the few small fishes 
posed to be this species, and referred to by us, in the 4th vol 
the NATURALIST, proving to have been young of other fish 
had we properly studied at the time the anatomy, instead 
lying upon the external appearances, such an error would n 
occurred. The statement then made, however, is now correct 
the abundance of this species in some localities is very re 
able. 
During the present summer, Prof. A. C. Apgar and the 
fished, with a large seine made of mosquito netting, & 
formed by the united waters of a large spring and the inf 
current of the Delaware and Raritan Canal. To our surpi 
found the cyprinoidal fauna to consist wholly of this speci 
sociated with the “roach” and the three small ‘minnows; 
bopses. We procured over one hundred specimens, and from we 
note the following with respect to their size and appearance. 27 
adult size is probably five inches; the largest specimen takei 
us measuring within a small fraction of that length. The 
which, both in, the drawing given by us, as above referred | 
in that given by Girard of H. argyritis, in the tenth vol. Fs 
R. R. Survey, is oval, is in the adult living fish, nearly, if not@ 
circular, and less oval in the young living fish, than repres 
After long immersion in spirits, we notice that the eye is 0 
rather than circular. Otherwise, externally, we note no Y 
from Prof. Cope’s description. It is given, by Prof. Cope 
the length of the intestinal canal, which is a generic char 
in Hybognathusy four times the length of the fish. 
measurement of the intestines, in over fifty dissections, 
length, in Hybognathus osmerinus, to vary with age, ang ©" 
never less than five and one-quarter times the total length. 
is a considerable difference, even in fish measuring only 
inches in length. Unlike the fourteen other € 
the same streams, the peritoneum in this species is uni 
intensely black. Examination of the contents of the 
showed an exclusively vegetable diet, which was indicated 
: * Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., vol. 11, p. 466 (foot note) 
T AMER. NATURALIST, vol. 4, P- 


we 


THE CYPRINOIDS OF CENTRAL NEW JERSEY. 327 


peculiar character of the pharyngeal teetli—without hooks and 
cultriform—and length of the intestinal canal ; it being, as a rule, 
longer than the total length of the fish, sometimes many times 
longer, in the herbivorous ; and as long, or less than twice as long, 
in the carnivorous and omnivorous species 

The preferred haunts of this cyprinoid are still waters, with 
muddy and weed-grown banks and bottom. If undisturbed it 
- lies quietly in the growth along the banks, or in the bed of the 
stream, and only leaves its hiding place when frightened, Itisa 
sluggish fish, compared with some species, but in the aquarium is 
active enough, to make it desirable. 

16. Hyborhynchus notatus (Rafinesque). Among the many hun- 
dreds of specimens of our cyprinoids, gathered during the present 
summer, occurred one solitary individual, that in the aquarium 
was particularly noticeable for his very blunt snout, small, inferior 
mouth, and the fact of the osseus dorsal ray being separated from 
the adjoining ray by a membrane. These facts indicated its genus 
as Hyborhynchus; and the length of the alimentary canal, and 
character of the pharyngeal teeth, showed, on dissection, that the 
external characters had not been misinterpreted. On careful com- 
parison of this single specimen with Gunther’s description* and 
the figure given by Prof. Cope,} we find that it agrees very nearly 
with the Hybor. notatus, from northern and western rivers. The 


only differences we could detect were a somewhat larger eye, pos- - 


sibly a more tapering snout, and no trace of a black spot at the 
base of the tail. Experience in the study of this family of fishes 
shows that these may all be merely individual differences. 

The specimen taken was captured, associated with the foregoing 
Hybognathus, and was placed in the aquarium ‘as such; but the 
differences were very noticeable when the two species were seen 
together moving slowly about the plants in the tanks and nibbling 
at the foliage with their peculiar mouths. 

Having completed the list of our cyprinoids, we will, in conclu- 
sion, give it a moment’s consideration from an evolution stand- 
point. With no faith in. the immutability of specific or generic 
forms, it at once occurs to us that the list might be properly cur- 
tailed by considering as merely “ varieties,” the Hybopsis phaénna , 
i.e., a variety of H. Hudsonius; that possibly the three small 


* Catalogue of Fishes, — vä, p. 182. 
f Penn. icles , pl. x ae 5. 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VII 


+ 


338 ' HE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 


Hybopses are not as*widely different as supposed; and that 
Hybognathus osmerinus is, in truth, not ‘ specifically” di 
from the allied argyritis; that, in fact, it would be more cons 
to consider these all, as we did the small blue Stilbe a our 
creeks. 

If, by a “species,” we meant anything other than a conveni 


primitive form of omnivorous fresh-water fish, that has given 
to a variety of forms, through a long series of generations, t 
would, each in its own place and time, suit the particular ha 
it chanced to frequent or was forced to occupy ; if we have 
other thought in view, then, it would be — inconsistent 
add to the long list of so-called “ species.” We do not, how 
consider *‘ species” otherwise than as here sketched out, and | 
sidering also the amount of variation among any considera 
number of individuals of any one “species,” and believing that 
varieties are steadily though slowly becoming more and more Va 
ried, and so gradually entering what may be termed “ specific te 
ritory,” we claim that no undue use of the imagination will be 
brought into play, in recalling a primitive, typical oya 
we range, side by side, adult and young specimens of each of 
the sixteen “species,” that we have met with so far, i 
ware River and its tributaries, in central New Jersey. 


THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 


BY T. MARTIN TRIPPE. 


Tuere is nothing connected with the fascinating study aion 


are portarined that our very apaadi lends an 
to the mysterious interest involved. Anemones sað butt 
spring up in a day, where yesterday they were ye but 


come, we might have found the sprouting blades 


THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS, ` 339 


that promised future blossoms as soon as the warm April rains 
should fall. Like the flowers, the birds come to us suddenly and 
almost unawares; a day ago there were none; to-day, the woods 
and fields are vocal with their music; but, unlike the flowers, 
there was no herald to announce their approach, no presage of 
their coming. Ere we are aware they are with us; before we 
, know it, they are gone. 

On some bright February morning, I go out into brown sere 
meadows, and wander along the banks of a brook, covered here 
and there with dense thickets of tall alders and hornbeams, with 
an undergrowth of blackberries and greenbriars. Yesterday, the 
only inhabitants they contained were tree-sparrows; to-day they 
hold a party of red-winged blackbirds, whose harsh merry notes 
and jolly chatter proclaim their joy at being home again. They 
have come, perhaps, from reedy marshes that line the Virginia 
coast; or, perchance, from Carolina rice-fields; but no man saw 
them on their journey ; silently and unannounced, they came and 
reoccupied their summer haunts. A little later, I visit the same 
wet meadows, and find them frozen at the depth of a few inches, 


though on the surface, the black soil is soft and muddy; then ` 


comes a heavy rainstorm the next day, and on the succeeding 
morning, they are alive with snipe. Or, some morning in May, 

“when the woods are beginning to unfold their green robes and the 
towhee to call from the thickets, I find, here and there, a warbler 
or two; but only one or two, save, now and then a troop of cor- 
onatas. A storm from the south sets in and lasts for a day or 
‘two; and when it has ceased, in the morning, I go out into the 
woods again; and hundreds and thousands of warblers of a dozen 
species are fluttering through the boughs and copses, and lisping 
in the tree-tops. How they came, I know not, nor whence; but 
here they are, where, a day ago, scarce one was to be seen. Two 
days more and nine-tenths of them are gone. 

There are some birds whose migrations are apparent enough. 
In November we see flocks of robins passing south, high up in 
the air, calling to each other as they go. In March, and again, 
late in fall, long trains of crows silently stream across the sky ; 
in September flocks of red-birds wing their way overhead, their 
presence betrayed by their mellow notes. The ducks, geese and 
Cranes, with much noise and gabble, announce their passage 
through the country; and in the later days of autumn, the hawks, 


. and go silently and unawares.’ No one sees the wren or the sp 
, 


* 


uncommon bird in northern New Jersey during fall, is è 
“ingly rare in spring; while, on the other hand, the Blackburnian 


340 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 


distant specks against the sky, are seen floating slowly south 
after their departing prey. But the vast majority of birds co 


row on its migration; no one knows how long, they are on í 
way, or by what route they reach their destination. We know — 
that they come from the south in the spring and return in the fall, — 
and there our knowledge ends. 
Most birds move north and south in their migrations; but ab 
though this is the general direction of the movement, it is aff 
more or less by various circumstances. On the seaboard, it 
“follows the general course of the coast, and in the west it is i 
enced by the border line between the prairies and the forests 
which, throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin, lies in a northw 
and southeast course. Mountain ranges and the interior lakes 
alter: the general north and south direction more or less, an 
isothermal lines point out other variations. Some birds appeat 
to follow different routes on the autumnal migration from 
which they take on the vernal. The Connecticut warbler, & 


warbler is far more abundant in spring than in fall. Other 
again, appear to take a fancy to some particular line of flight, al 
adhere to it for a number of years, then deserting it for some 97 
I have known the golden plover, for instance, to be quite abun® 


spring, on arriving at the mouth of the Minnesota, Soph” 
follow up one valley and sometimes the other ; one of the two” 
variably attracting by far the larger proportion, though wi? 
any apparent reason. ee 
The regularity which marks the arrival and departure of Ei 
birds is quite remarkable. For five successive years, I wie 
first coming of the crow and red-winged blackbirds on the e 
February, and so punctual were they, that at last I came to 
them almost as certainly on that day, as though they had y 
company of players, announced to appear at a certain time 


arrival was a day or two later or earlier. Between the m 
19th of October, I expected tọ see the southward fight 


THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 841 


crows; and very rarely did I fail to notice it within those dates. 
But other species show the very reverse of this regularity. The 


` snipe and the ducks are notoriously uncertain in their movements, | 


in some seasons coming weeks earlier than in others. The blue- 
bird may be seen, in some years, every winter month; and in 
others, not one may be found till late in February. The bluebird, 
however, is a homesick little fellow away from his native orchards, 
and two or three fine warm days are apt to lure him back, even in 
the middle of January. 

That many birds return, year after year,” to the same localities 
is well established ; but it may be doubted if this is the case with? 
all, or even the majority. Spallanyane’s experiment is well known ; 
he tied bits of red silk to the legs of several swallows that haunted 
the house in which he dwelt; and spring after spring, observed 
the same birds return to their native place. A pair of bluebirds 
that had taken up their abode in a little bird- house, put up for 
their especial benefit, returned for several seasons to the same fa- 
vorite nesting-place—at least I always fancied that I could recog- 
nize the same pair—and, as if to obtain undisputed possession of 
their snug quarters, invariably appeared a few days in advance of 
the other bluebirds. A pair of night herons took up their res- 
idence for three successive seasons, in a little, secluded swamp, 
where neither before or subsequently, for several years, were they 
ever seen. Similar instantes doubtless occur to every ornithol- 
ogist. 

Of many species the males and females travel together ; of’: some, 
the former precede the latter; but I know of none where the 
females migrate in advance of their mates. The robin isa familiar 
instance of the first case; and probably all the thrushes follow his 
example. The bluebird, in spring, almost always travels in pairs, 
except very early in the season when a solitary male sometimes 
appears. With the Fringillide, or most of the species, at least, 
the sexes migrate together. The redstart and some of the warblers 
appear a little before their less gayly-colored mates ; and I suspect 
that this is the case with nearly all the Sylvicolide. The bobolink 
is a conspicuous example of the same nature; on the prairies of 
Towa, flocks of hundreds of males may be seen, several days before 
a Single female arrives. The rose-breasted grosbeak is still another 

stance, and many others might be mentioned. As a general rule 
when the males are brighter colored than the females, the former 


- 


* 


7 


higher latitudes, while those that passed the summer with us 


tory. This is the view of J. A. Alllen, as set forth in pa 


342 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 


precede the latter; and when there is little or no difference b 
tween the plumage of the sexes, both travel together either 
flocks or in pairs. In the autumnal migration this distincti 
obliterated, and nearly all birds associate together in small 
ties or large flocks, composed of. both sexes; and with many 
females and young retire southward, a little in advance of tl 
hardier, adult males. ; 
ew birds are’ absolutely stationary. Even those that we st 


gone to warmer regions. Specimens of the same species, ta 
in winter, differ from those of summer in being larger and stouter. 
The earliest birds that reach any given locality in spring 
usually brighter colored and larger than those that breed there, 
the former passing farther north as the latter arrive. Most b 
begin nesting immediately after arriving at their destination, al! 
when, as is the case with the robin, the first comers appear Wee 
in advance of the breeding season, they remain but a short time, 
moving slowly northward until they have reached their homes when 
they at once commence the task of raising their young, 

after which they begin retiring to the southward. There eis 
a constant movement going on, interrupted only by per ' 
breeding seasons; a general swaying north and south in 
one limit is searcely reached, before a retrogression sets in towards 
the other; and when, as is frequently the case, the southern 
of the northernmost representatives of a species, is north of 
summer range of the southern races, the species is loo upon 
resident, although the individuals composing it are strictly 


ing “ Notes on the Birds of Iowa,” and, I believe, correspo. 
those of nearly all writers on the subject; but high autaa 
disagree. Audubon states that the snipe, Gallinago Wilsonits 
not appear in Canada and Maine, until nearly three weeks 4 
arrives on the marshes of New Jersey; while Frank Fore” 
whose observations in this case are quite as reliable, asserts 
tively that the snipe appears nearly simultaneously in 
New Jersey, and along the St. Lawrence River as far ‘ 
Quebec. The subject has been little studied, and promi of 
| results to a careful investigation ; the lack 


Bete 


THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 343 


however, is an almost insurmountable difficulty to be encountered 
at the very outset. 

Yet some species remain in the same localities throughout the 
year. The gallinaceous birds are true residents of the regions in 
which they raise their young; and many of the Corvide shift 
their quarters very slightly, if at all, in any season. Some of the 
rapacious birds, especially among the owls, are quite stationary ; 
and among the woodpeckers, are species that appear to reside 
constantly in the same localities. Other species, again, seem to be 
indifferently migratory or stationary. Of the vast numbers of 


‘mallards that frequent the ponds and streams of Texas, during 


winter, great numbers are said to remain and breed, while the 
others rove hundreds of miles to the northward. 

In the “ Natural History of the state of New York”* DeKay 
gives the Carolina titmouse as being found in southern New York 
in winter only. If this observation is correct, it affords a unique 
instance of a bird migrating north in winter; but there is good 
reason to doubt the accuracy of the statement. 

The causes of migration are various; but the principal one is 
undoubtedly the want of food. Birds seek a milder climate than 
hat of their native regions, because their means of subsistence 
fail, and they must either obtain it elsewhere, or starve. As soon 
as the chill of autumn destroys the greater number of insects, and 
banishes the remainder to their winter retreats, the insectivorous 
tribes are compelled to migrate to regions where a warmer sun 
sustains a sufficiency of insect life to supply them with food; and 
the granivorous species, finding their usual stores of seeds either 
becoming exhausted or covered with deep snow, follow in their 
track, while rapacious birds are obliged to accompany their prey. 
Only the species whose food-supply is unaffected by the inclem-. 
ency of the season remain. The nuthatch and brown creeper are 
able to find as ample fare in one season, as in another, and a few 
Sparrows find sufficient food in such scattered weed 


s as appea 
above the snow, or amid sheltered nooks and thickets protected 


from the storm. Even in the coldest weather, wherever the cedar 
berries are abundant, we find robins, who refuse to leave as long 
as they can find anything to eat; and bluebirds may be seen amid 
clumps of sumachs, clinging to their northern homes, until com- 


* Possibly, I am mistaken in the reference. = so, the statement is made in Giraud’s 
Birds of Lon g Island.” 


~ 


344 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 


pelled to go by absolute necessity. In wet, springy meadows. 
in grass fields, in the eastern states, the meadow lark finds a 
cient supply of food to subsist upon, throughout the winter; wh 
on the western prairies, under a less degree of cold he migrates 
regularly as the kingbird, being unable to procure the req 
supply of food in his summer habitat. ‘The snipe and the wood 
cock linger as long as they can find unfrozen marshes and swa 
and in mild seasons, may be found about warm, springy meadows 
and coppices, sheltered from the frost, even in mid-winter. But 
were it possible for them to find a sufficiency of worms, and could 
the warblers obtain such insects as they habitually feed upon, the 
woods and marshes, instead of being nearly deserted for seve gs 
months, would remain tenanted throughout the year. Just as 
soon as the rigor of winter has passed away, and the ch 
temperature calls forth myriads of gnats and flies to swarm 
the woods, and the frozen earth thaws, and permits the worms to 
approach the surface again, they come back to their native reg 
from which they had been temporarily driven by stern necessity. — 
The supply of food, however, is -so closely governed by the 
seasons, that the migrations may be said to depend upon them, 
although, absolutely speaking, the paramount necessity of sub- 
sistence, and not the mere effect of heat and cold upon the b : 
themselves, is the main cause. Hence, we find, as a rule, that ¢ 
migrations of those birds, whose food is most affected by a change 
of temperature, are more regular and extended than those of 
species, whose subsistence is more independent of the seas 
The Colopteride, Sylvicolide, and all insectivorous birds 
capture their prey upon the wing, belong to the former class; * 
range extends, in most cases, many hundred miles north and uit 
and the migration is complete, few or no individuals lingeries 
behind the rest in their summer abodes. The granivorous 
cies on the other hand, living principally upon seeds, are m 
tionary, some of them finding a sufficient supply of food in 
native haunts, throughout the winter, while the rest Mis 
southward, though they seldom go as far as the insect 
birds. The omnivorous species are still more independent 
of them, as the raven, are strictly non-migratory. , 
- Nevertheless, in some cases, mere temperature, UNCON” 
with the question of subsistence, seems to be the motive I” 
from one region to another... There is no apparent reason W 


THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 345 
* 


pine grosbeak should not find as abundant a supply of food in the 
northern forests during cold winters as in mild; yet it is only 
during the former that it descends to the latitude of New York; 
while in the latter it does not migrate as far south by one hundred 
and fifty or two hundred miles. The pine finch, and the crossbills 
are similar instances. On the other hand, a long, hot summer is 
apt to entice some southern birds farther north than usual. 

Man exercises a very considerable influence upon the migration 
of some birds. The clearing away of forests, and the planting of 
trees.upon the prairies, attract species that formerly could not 
find the means of support in those regions; and compel others 
to shun localities which they were wont to frequent. Fifty or 
sixty years ago, according to Audubon, the mallard and the wild 
goose, as well as some other species of water-fowl, bred in consid- 
erable numbers in the Mississippi valley ; but as the settlement of 
the country progressed, they retreated farther and farther north, 
until at the present day, very few raise their young east of the 
Missouri and Red rivers, or south of the British boundary, al- 
though some still nest in central and western Minnesota, and 
northern Iowa. In this case the necessity of reaching a secure, 
safe retreat, remote from the settlements, has caused them to ex- 
tend their migration far beyond its former limit. Doubtless a 
Similar motive has acted in other instances with similar results. 
The desire to rear their young in quiet and seclusion, is a very 
strong one in many birds; and if disturbed or annoyed in an 
` Way, they will soon abandon the region, and seek another where 
they can pass the breeding season unmolested. 

Violent storms, and sudden changes in the weather, are often 
preceded by, or accompanied with, extraordinary migration among 

irds. The immense flocks of pigeons and blackbirds that occa- 
sionally pass through the country are familiar to every one. Sev- 
` eral years ago I witnessed an unusual migration of the latter bird, 
which I have never seen equalled, either before or since not even 
in the coast marshes where they sometimes congregate in enor- 
mous flocks. The latter part of February, and first week of 
March had been very mild and warm, and great numbers of crows, 
redwinged and cow blackbirds had gone north. There came a 
sudden, violent storm from the north one night, accompanied by 
showers of hail, snow and sleet, continuing all next day, and 
driving before it, immense multitudes of blackbirds. Vast flocks, 


346 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 


flying close to the ground to escape the fury of the blast, pas 
by so continuously that it was often impossible to tell where 
ended and the next began. For four or five hours the im 
hosts kept sweeping by; the air at times seemed filled with them 
and I was vividly reminded of Audubon’s account of the ‘wild — 
pigeons in Kentucky. The storm expended its fury within a few 
hours after the last blackbird had passed; but although the next — 
few days were clear and warm, not a bird reappeared for nearly & 
week. A similar migration of white-bellied swallows took place 
near Newark, New Jersey, some six or seven years since, in ; 
latter part of October, just before a long, northeast rainstorm, 
followed by sharp frosts. Although their numbers were not 
to those of the blackbirds, the sky at times, seemed fairly covere 
with their hosts, tens of thousands being in sight at any moment 
for nearly an hour. Their course was to the southwest; and as 
if aware of the impending storm, their flight was hurried an 
direct, far different from their usual circling, easy motion. = 
But the most remarkable instance of the kind that ever came 
across my observation occurred in southern Iowa, in the fall of 
1871. The weather, at the time, was the perfection of Indian, 
summer,—clear, bright and warm. About the tenth of November, 
vast numbers of cranes began to fly south. Always @ cor 
bird in spring and fall, they appeared in such multitudes, 
settlers, who had been in the country for twenty years Eid 
declared they had never seen anything to equal it. thou 
upon thousands covered the sky at all hours of the day, Hoat 
in slow easy circles, far up in the air all moving steadily § 
ward. Most of them were of the sandhill species; but here 
there, sweeping in wider circles far above their brown bret 
if conscious of their superior beauty, a flock of white ones 
peared,—a beautiful sight, their snowy plumage and black 
sharply outlined against the blue sky ; sometimes so high up 
they looked like mere white specks, and their loud rattling 
sounded like faint echoes of the whoops of those far beneath 
For three days the remarkable procession lasted; then p 
next two days, although the weather continued as warm p 
as it had previously been, not a crane was to be seen; 
that, without the slightest warning, a succession of o 
hail and rainstorms set in, followed by intense cold. On 
of November the mercury sunk to 5° F., and by the 4°" 


THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 347 


was ice upon the ponds, five inches in thickness. The cranes had 
not escaped a day too soon. 
Many birds prefer to migrate during peculiar conditions of 
weather. The crows almost always move north against a high 
' March wind. A long rainstorm with heavy winds, in the early 
part of May, is almost sure to be followed, as soon as it has 
cleared away, by a great influx of warblers; and I have noticed 
that the migrating hawks often appear in much greater numbers 
than usual under the same circumstances. In May, 1865, a long 
northeast storm, clearing up in the evening of the second day, was 
followed by an extraordinary flight of hawks. Spending the day 
in the woods, I was astonished at the number, both of individuals 
and species. They passed overhead, just above the tree-tops, every 
moment; sometimes singly, sometimes in pairs, and at times in 
small parties of five or ten or even twenty or thirty. Ata low 


estimation, I saw a thousand during the morning; and have no. 


doubt that I might have seen ten times as many had I been in the 
open fields, instead of dense woods. The red-tailed, sharp-shinned, 
Cooper’s and broad-winged species were the most common; but 
half a dozen other species were observed, including a golden eagle, 
the only one I ever saw in that locality. All were pursuing the 
same course—northeast—and all flew at nearly the same eleva- 
tion, close to the tops of the trees, as if to avoid the strong. head- 
wind as much as possible. Although I had nothing larger than No. 
10 with me, such alluring shots were constantly presenting them- 


selves, that I was tempted to fire a score of times or more, without ` 


loosening a feather. Had I been supplied with the proper ammu- 
nition, I might have secured fifty specimens that day. Other in- 
stances are afforded by the hummingbird, who journeys only on 
the brightest, sunniest days; and the snow bunting, whose pre- 
dilection for travelling with snow storms, has gained for him, 
among the Swedes, the name of ‘‘bad-weather bird.” 

But although we may assign many reasons for the migration of 
birds, there is much about them that is seemingly inexplicable. 

It is hard to say, for instance, why the black-throated bunting 
should delay his coming till May, when his relative, the chipping 
sparrow arrives a month earlier, and the song sparrow a month 
or six weeks earlier still; although neither is equipped with stouter 
bills or forms, or are apparently better adapted to withstand the 
cold. Or it would be puzzling to tell why Aiken’s snowbird, which 


. 


348 THE ANTLERS OF DEER. 


remains all winter in certain portions of Colorado finding 
dant food, should migrate in spring, while a closely allied sp 
or variety, the chestnut-backed snowbird, appears just as’ 
former is leaving, and occupies its place. That an insectiv 
bird, as the wood pewee, for example, should delay its coming 
a month or more after its cousin the phoebe, is explicable by 
supposition that the two birds prefer different varieties of ins 
and migrate only when they are to be found; but in the case 
. the granivorous birds, such an explanation is not admissible. 


same order of coming. The water thrush and the towhee arri 
two weeks earlier in central Iowa, than they do in northern New 
Jersey ; the yellow-crowned warbler and two or three others on the 
other hand, are several days later; while most of the birds ap y: 
about the same time. But however that may be, whether future 
migrations will fully and completely reveal all the causes whigh 
influence the migrations of birds; or whether many of them a 

such as to baffle our researches, the subject loses none of its 
terest because we do not at present fully comprehend it, and 

ever remain one of the most engaging studies in natural history. 


ie 


ON THE STRUCTURE AND CASTING OF THE ANTL 
: OF DE 


BY JOHN DEAN CATON, LL. D. 

_ My investigations of the structure, system of nutriment, 
‘of growth, cause of death and rejection of the antlers of t 
vide have led to results which may interest the readers 
 Narorauist. 


THE ANTLERS OF DEER. 349 


shall presently see they are organized in the same way. They 
. are anomalous bones, no doubt, and they differ in their economy 
from ordinary bone:just so far and no farther, than these peculi- 
arities require. They differ from all other bones in being entirely 
superficial. They are of very rapid growth, speedily mature, die 
and are soon thrown off, while all other bones are of very slow 
growth and persistent with the animal through life. 

Like all other bones, for their growth and sustenance, they are 
provided with a periosteum with Manent canals and systems and 
medullary arteries. 

ese external bones are grown upon a permanent process of 
the skull called pedicels. The periosteum of the antler, during its 
growth, together with a black cuticle covering it in which a coat 
of fine fur is inserted, is called the velvet. In this are a great mul- 
titude of large arteries which everywhere give off branches, which 
penetrate the growing antler and convey the blood to the Haversian 
canals, which are surrounded by, and connected with, Haversian 
systems, the same as in the long internal bones. 

Besides this supply of nutriment from without an internal sup- 
ply is provided for in two ways. First, a main artery, with a 
multitude of auxiliaries, passes up through the pedicel into the 
antler, which answers well to the medullary artery, and secondly 
a number of large arteries branch off from those of the periosteum 
at the end of the pedicel, and pass in through the articulation 
where the transitory unites with the permanent bone. These also 
pass up into the new-growing antler. Let any one take the first 
deer’s head’ with horns which he finds in the market, and dissect 
away the skin at the butt of the antlers, and he will see with the 
naked eye the canals for these arteries passing into the articulation. 
The veins are mostly internal. 

Thus understanding the system of blood-vessels provided for 
this external bone, and remembering that the blood-vessels are re- 
quired to be, as they are, vastly larger than for internal bones, we 
are now prepared to follow its growth from the beginning to the 
end. 


When the dead antler is cast off, which generally occurs with all 
but one of our American species in early winter, the blood-vessels 
of the periosteum reaching the butt of the antler are ruptured and 
a tolerably copious flow of blood from them ensues. They imme- 
diately set to work and extend the periosteum over the end of the 


350 THE ANTLERS OF DEER. 


pedicel, filling up the concavity in the top of the pedicel, 

stituting the seat of the new antler. It remains in this conditi 
till spring arrives, when intense activity is observed in 
covering, the temperature of which is greatly increased, and 
becomes exceedingly sensitive like any other inflamed part. It 
now observed to rise up appearing like a large blood blister, 
the rudiments of the fur on the cuticle are observed. It ri 
rapidly, forming within itself new systems of blood-vessels 


icel. Thus, is commenced the wall of the new antler which is 
built up rapidly by new deposits, maintaining about the si 
distance from the upper end of the column, and very nearly of 
full diameter of the perfected antler. As the wall rises it thich 
very slowly, the upper extremity presenting a thin serrated ed 
At first, the deposit presents the appearance of cancellated ti 
which is first filled up at the circumference and gradually re 
into Haversian canals and systems, which are supplied from 
periosteum as before stated. If now we examine a specimen 
full career of new growth, say eight inches long, and one inch 
diameter,'we shall find the upper two inches a mass of highly" 
flamed blood-vessels, very sensitive to the touch, while below we cai 
feel the established walls when the periosteum has become aU 
insensible. Let us dissect it and we find the cavity, large at 
upper extremity, gradually narrowing to the lower end of the 
where it may be less than a quarter of an inch in diameter, bu! 
opening does not terminate with the antler. It passes ie 
the pedicel where it may be a sixteenth of an inch in dian 
constituting the canal for the medullary artery. The whole } 
ternal portion of the pedicel is porous, admitting the pase 
the other vessels through it into the growing antler above, p* 
through the cancellated tissue which has formed above 


each progressing, in a proper ratio, so that the tip 
and snag is completed about the same time. By this time ge 
whole interior of the antler is filled with the cancellated © 
solidified to a good degree towards the surface. The e* 


> 
THE ANTLERS OF DEER. 351 


ities are first completely solidified. Now occurs a phenomenon 
which does not occur with the internal bone whose conditions do 
not require it. 

At the extremities first, the deposit of earthy salts goes on till 
this fills up the canals leading from the periosteum to the Haver- 
sian canals, so that the circulation through them is obstructed ; 
and from these points complete condensation goes on till it 
reaches the lower extremity, when the communication between the 
external and the internal blood-vessels becomes completely sev- 
ered. Now it is that the animal is prompted bY some natural im- 
pulse to rub off this outer covering while yet it is gorged with 
blood. It comes off in long strips or shreds, which look like red 
cords suspended from the antlers and cover the animal with blood 
wherever they can reach and stain the trees and branches which he 
uses forthe purpose. During this time the animal seems excited 
and even fierce. I suppose that this impulse to rub off the velvet 
arises from an irritation created in this thick vascular covering, 
from the fact that the arteries are pouring into it their full volume 
of blood, while the imperfect venous system with which it is pro- 
vided is unable to return the blood sufficiently now that it is cut 
off from the veins within the antler which had principally per- 
formed that office before the surface canals had been closed. 

While this has been progressing on the surface, the growth within 
has been progressing also from the nutriment received by the in- 
ternal arteries. The cavities in the branches and the upper por- 
tion of the beam pretty soon become hardened, like ivory 
throughout, and the solid wall on the lower part much thickened. 
Before the central section has become solid, the nutrient vessels 
are obstructed below, and the deposit of bony particles is arrested 
while yet the larger portions of the antler are more or less porous, 
leaving what may represent the medullary canal, braced in every 
imaginable direction by thin plates of bone, constituting the walls 
of the cells, thus leaving the antler lighter, but nearly as strong 
as if it were entirely solid. The extent of this porous section 
and its density differ very much in different specimens; still it is 
present in all, to a greater or less extent. The active internal 
flow of the blood continues longer in young animals than in old, 
after the velvet is rubbed off. Sometimes the blood will flow appre- 
Ciably when the antler is sawed off near its seat, two or three 


, 


352 ' THE ANTLERS OF DEER. 


months after the velvet has been discarded, while in aged animals À 
after that time, the plasma principally passes up into the antler. 1 
In the meantime, the lower extremity of the antler, that con- 
vex part below the burr, which sits in the concave seat whichis 
the top of the pedicel, has been solidifying much more rapidly 
than the internal portion above; and before the cells above had 
become too much filled up, the lower convex extremity, which, : 
during the active growth of the antler, was traversed by the canals 
of all the internal blood-vessels leading to or from the antler, 
becomes more and more compact till finally these canals become 
completely filled up and the circulation above cut off. This lower 
crust now much resembles the articular bone terminating the i 
internal bones at the articulations. It resembles it in its extreme 
solidity and larger granules, which any one can see on the rough- i 
ened surface by inspecting any deers antler which has been ; 
dropped from the living animal, for they are well exposed by the | 
absorbent process to be presently described: : 
While nature has been doing this work another and a very 
anomalous work has been progressing in an internal bone. 

The pedicel, which during the active growth of the antler was 
open and porous, allowing the internal blood-vessels to pass 
through it freely, so, soon as the great demand for nutriment had 
ceased, commenced a new deposit of laminæ in those canals, which 
before the commencement of that new growth had been enlarged 
by absorption, until the blood-vessels passing through them are 
collapsed, and so the circulation through them arrested. This has 
become necessary in order to furnish a strong firm base for the 
antler while it is used as a weapon of warfare, which was not 
required during the growth of the antler, when the pedicel was 


spongy and weak. This annual destruction and reconstruction 
on- 


- 


of bone tissue nowhere else occurs in the internal animal ey 
omy, and nowhere else do exigencies require it. 
Now that all sources of nutriment, both external and internal, 
have been cut off from the antler, it dies and becomes & foreign — 
body on the living animal, and as nature cannot tolerate this i 
a great length of time she has provided the means for discarding 
the inert body and presently sets those means in motion. One 
_ of the three systems of blood-vessels first describell has not yet 
been destroyed. Those leading from the periosteum into the al 
ticulation still penetrate the seam although they cannot penetrate 


* 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 358 


the solid crust now firmly united to the persistent pedicel. The ab- 
sorbents of these blood-vessels now commence active operation 
and undermine the antler. They do not carry away the surface 
of the bone evenly so as to leave it smooth, but as it were they 
remove alternate particles, or rather alternate groups of granules, 
till the union, which before was so firm that no force could break 
it at the point of junction, has become so weakened that the antler 
drops off or is detached by some slight violence. This process of 
absorption requires about one month’s time. As before stated the 
blood now flows freely from the blood-vessels of the periosteum of: 
the pedicel which had penetrated the seam, now ruptured by the 
removal of the antler. If we now examine the butt of the antler 
we shall find the surface very rough, like coarse sand-paper, re- 
sulting from the unequal absorption before described. 

We shall also find. it of a most immaculate whiteness without 
the least trace of blood coming from it, although it is sometimes 
stained with the blood from below. ; 

Space will not now permit me to pursue the subject and explain 
the peculiarities of the growth of the antlers on the emascu- 
lated buck, and show why it is that they never mature so as to be 
thrown off, but are persistent through a long course of years, even 
to the death of the animal. : 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


Youne’s Paysican Grograruy.*— This is a terse and excellent 
compilation by one who, as formerly connected with the geological 
Survey of Great Britain and now a teacher of geology, knows how 
to meet the wants of students. As the preface was written in 
November, 1873, and the latest information given concerning the 
results of deep sea dredging and other explorations which have 
thrown so much light on the geology of the globe, we may feel 
Sure that it contains very late information. The views on the 
formation of continents and theoretical considerations regarding 
Me geological cause of the present distribution of animals and 
P Neer Geen eee 


* : a a 
ve Physical Geography. By John Young, Regius Profe y of Glas 
_ 8°W. Putnam’s advanced Science Series, New York. 12mo, pp. 368. [1874, no date 
Si on title page.] $1 00. 
_ AMER, NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 23 

e 


854 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


plants are sound. The author insists upon the extreme antiquity 


of the continents and the fact that the present ocean beds have 


always been such. 

The main drawback in the book is the almost entire absence of 
illustrations, of which there are not a dozen. The reader, however, 
is constantly referred to a map. While an excellent book for the 


British student, the American reader will labor under the disad- y 


vantage of reference to the local geology of Scotland and England, 
to the exclusion of the broader views to be derived from a study 
of the physical geology of his own continent. Compared with the 
physical geography of our own Guyot, we miss the elegant diction 
and broad generalizations of the leading physical geographer of 
his time. The American “ Physical Geography” with its beautiful 
illustration and maps; which appeal so forcibly to the eye, is a 
much more valuable aid to the naturalist. -Young’s, however, is 
an excellent book to read in connection with Guyot. 


Harr Hours wirn rae Microscorr.*—The issue of “ Putnam’s 
Popular Manuals” has furnished us a new edition of this best of 
books for beginners who take up the microscope as a recreation 
or as a means of studying general natural history. The new 
edition includes all the advantages of the first. Something be 
tween a catalogue of objects and a treatise upon them, it groups 
_ together, in a manner both convenient and sufficiently natural, & 
large number of fascinating microscopic views. The clear and 
numerous illustrations by Tuffen West, which are rather construc 
tions of the objects than drawings of any one possible view of them, 
are not on that account imaginary and faulty as has been claimed, 
but all the better adapted to their purpose, 

With the exception of the considerably and judiciously enlarged 
introductory chapter on the structure of the microscope by the 
author, in which the binocular receives such unqualified approval 
as it deserves and receives from those who use it for similar work; 
and a good half-hour, by F. Kitton, with polarized light illustrated 
by a bright chromo-lithograph, this edition is not much modernized 
nor is it much the worse for remaining as it was originally con- 
structed. 


*Half Hours with the 


Microscope; being a popular guide to the use of re 


‘Scope as a means of amusement and instruction. By Edwin Lankester, M. D- 
“ated from nature, by Tuffen West. New York: G. P, Putnam’s sons, 1874. 


hg 


* 


BOTANY. 355 


The appendix by Thos. Ketteringham, on the preparation and 
mounting of objects, is useful to beginners, though somewhat more 
in need of revision than the body of the work. —R. H. W 


BOTANY. 


Sex in Prants.—The remarks of Dr. John Stockton Hough 
on sex in plants (p. 19, American NATURALIST, 1874) are so kind 
and complimentary to me, that only a desire tg aid science, a 
desire I am sure my friend will respect, leads me to offer the fol- 
lowing remarks. 

That Dr. Hough has mistaken my views is clear, from his sug- 
gestion that I should have used the word “development” in my 
papers. Nothing was further from my thoughts. I have endeav- 
ored to show that sex is determined before development begins ; 
and I have used the term vitality or vigor in order to express the 
determining power. In a field so wholly new, as this question 
was when I entered into it, I had great difficulty in finding terms 
to represent the facts properly ; but whenever I have used the 
terms vigor or vitality, I have always explained that I meant by 
them a high or low degree of life whatever that might be. If two 
plants or parts of plants equally ‘‘developed,” were placed under 
the same circumstances as regards nutrition, and one died while 
the other passed through uninjured, this I call a test of vitality. 
In the one case there is a low vital power, in the other a higher ; 
this I have taken as the chief factor in deciding sex, and ‘‘devel- 
opment” has clearly no place in the idea. 

That Dr. Hough has not read my papers very Closely also 
appears froi his quotations. It was I and not Mr. Darwin, who 
recorded the fact that female branches sometimes appeared on 
male silver maples ; and I also gave the account of Mr. Arnold’s 
Toss-experiments, both in the * Proceedings of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences” of Philadelphia, before the dates he refers to. 
These are minor errors to be sure, but they lead to the fear that 
there may be greater ones; and that greater ones do occur is clear 
from his quoting me as saying that, “ In Norway spruces it is only 
in the fourth or fifth year, when vitality in the spur is nearly ex- 
hausted, that male flowers abundantly appear.” I never said any- 
thing of the kind; Norway spruces have no spurs. Again I am 
made to build considerably on the Cupuliferæ in my arguments 


* 


a : BOTANY. 


on sex. I have indeed named the oak, the beech, and the hazel, 
among numerous others incidentally, as plants which would bear 
out my views; but it is in the Coniferæ, not Cupulifere, that I 
have given in detdil the facts. 
Any one who will read my papers, as referred to by Dr. Hough, — 
will I am sure not agree with him that they prove his position. 
His proposition is, “that female plants, like female animals, are — 
less highly developed than males, and are the result of an inferior 
developmental egfort on the part of the female parents.” In the 
first place there can be no comparison between female plants” | 
and female animals. There is an individualized vitality in the 
various parts of a “ plant,” that there is not in an animal, and 
that vital power which turns food into life is operating in number- 
less places in the plant, to the one solitary organ in the animal; 
and in my view it is the varying phases of this vital power 
as determined by nutrition, in the various and varying parts of 
plants, which give direction or “ development” to the subsequent 
sex. For instance I have shown that in Pinus, Abies, Picea, 
Larix, and kindred forms, the female flowers are only borne on 
those most favorably situated for perfect nutrition, and that these 
many female branches, after they become half dead, commence to 
bear male flowers. How can this favor Dr. Hough’s proposition? 
How can Dr. Hough’s proposition be true, if I have truly stated 
` the facts? That they are true I appeal to any one who will take 
the trouble to examine the trees I have named when in blossom: 
I do not think that physiology alone is competent to deal with 
this sexual question. Morphology must go hand in hand with it. 
The failures to appreciate this has led my good vin “a 
error in his experiments with the corn plant. If he had perceived 
the common truths of morphology, he would have arrived at just 
the opposite conclusion to that which he has. ‘ Abridged inter- 
nodes” are by no means “‘in other words undeveloped.” — Theres 
in many plants, and especially in the Indian corn, a tremendous 


development. But in its embryonic condition it has more 5 
than the male. Every blade that forms the ‘husk ” was dest ee 
to be a leaf, and every leaf represents a node. Let any OP% ° 
the husk from an ear, and in this way he will find that in pe , 
cases over a score of nodes go to make up the corn-bearing °° ™ 


. 


BOTANY. 857 . 


Now examine the male branch, with its weak structure and ‘“de- 
velopment,” and we find that it exhausted its whole growing force 
in half a dozen weak nodes, with scarcely the apology for a leaf 
at any of the nodes. Compare this with the numerous fat husk 
blades, which are the morphological analogies of the leafy bracts 
on the male branch, and even Dr. Hough’s theory of ‘develop- 

_ ment” fails. Then the male panicle is only a female which has lost 
the vital power to combine. If the (usually four) two ranked lower 
branchlets of the male panicle had the vital power to combine* 
with an arrested central axis, and the other high vital powers of 
the female ear also act, we should håve an eight rowed ear of 
corn, instead of a male tassel. ‘Some of the specimens” ap- 
peared, to Dr. Hough, “as if the cob had separated into several 
Segments,” because the male tassel had gained more than usual 
vital force, and came nearly reaching a perfect ear. This, however, 
is all very clear to those who are familiar with the morphology of 
the corn plant, but which they may readily be excused for mis- 
taking who have only gone so far as to imagine that “a spike 
(ear) is only an undeveloped branch, sometimes having two or 
three internodes it is true, but generally sessile. It answers 
very well for descriptive botany, but leads to terrible mistakes 
here. 

In regard to Dr. Hough’s facts in relation to the sexual changes 
in the Indian corn, I can bear testimony to their complete accu- 
racy; and I can see that it is only his failure to appreciate their 
morphological value, and the real bearing of my facts on his own 
observations, that he has been led to regard them as favoring a 
View the reverse of mine. 

My position is simply this —a male flower and a female flower ` 
are essentially the same in their early embryological conditions. 
Morphology shows that these early identical parts may take either 
one form (male) or another (female); and I have shown, as I 
claim, that the physiological law which governs this morpho- 
logical development, is a higher vital power to turn nutritive forces 
towards the female than the male transformation—or as I have 
expressed it in my original paper, ‘‘It is the highest types of vi- 
tality (not gross development) that take on the female form.”— 
T. Mernan, 

i understand how high vital power, and the ability to combine parts, go together 
_ Se€ my paper on Adnation in Conifers in Chicago vol. of Proc. Amer. Assoc. 


cone" BOTANY. 


-A New Rises. — Among the Ribes collected in Colorado Ter- 
ritory during the past season by Prof. John Wolf, who was acting 
as botanist to Lieut. Wheeler’s Expedition, I find a form which 
appears distinct enough to have specific rank assigned it. A 
description is herewith sent. 

Riwes Worrt, sp. n. (R. sanguineum Pursh., var. variegatum 
S. Watson, King’s Report, völ. v, p. 100). Shrub, neither prickly 
nor spiny; two to four feet high; somewhat branching; young 
branches light brown, minutely glandular-pubescent, angled by 
two slight ridges, continuing down from the expanded base of the 
petiole above; branches of the previous year ashy-gray with a 
deciduous epidermis, which, on being shed, reveals a dark brown 
bark beneath. 

Leaves thickish cordate-orbicular, deeply 5-cleft, lobes’ rather 
obtuse, unequally serrate (though hardly doubly serrate). Aver- 
age of largest leaves two, to two and one-half inches in diameter, 
with sinus at base one-half an inch deep. Leaves slightly vis- 
cid; under surface pale green, with a few short glandular hairs; 
upper surface smoother and deeper green. Petioles from one 
half an inch to one and a half inches long, slightly margined by 
-a continuation of the principal veins of the blade; expanded at 
base, becoming semi-amplexicaul, and at times with the expat- 
sion strongly pectinately-ciliate and glandular-pubescent. 

Peduncles decidedly glandular-pubescent, one’ to two inches 
long, including the raceme, loosely 4 to 10-flowered. Bracts 
ovate-spatulate, obtuse, yellowish-white, verging to red occasion- 
ally, one to two lines long, and one line shorter than the pedicels, 
which are a little longer than the flowers. 

Sepals red, lanceolate, one to one and one-half lines long» 
never reflexed. ; 

Petals red, ovate-spatulate, half as long as the sepals and as 
long as the stamens. 
- Styles two, recurved, rising conically from the summit of the 
ovary, red for half their length and parted to, or below, the middle. 

Stigmas slightly capitate. ee 

Fruit when young, strongly glandular-hairy, but never prickly, 
becoming much smoother with age. Mature fruit not pulpy ? "i 
Toon or reddish purple, globose, three-eighths of an inch I 
diameter, pie 


BOTANY. 359 è 


Seeds few to many, distinctly margined all around; with the 
inner covering longitudinally punctate as seen through the gelat- 
inous coating. 

Twin Lakes and Mosquito Pass, Colorado Territory. Among 
rocks, at an altitude of ten to eleven thousand feet. 

It will be seen that this plant approaches both R. glutin- 
osum Benth., and R. sanguineum Pursh. It is distinguished 
from the former by being fewer flowered, having shorter ra- 
cemes and a rounder berry ; from the latter by its shorter racemes, 
relatively shorter bracts and longer pedicels, and erect calyx 
lobes 


Its nearest affinity is (as suggested also by Mr. Watson) 
R. sanguineum Pursh., of which it may be but a variety. I think 
it sufliciently distinct, however, to bear the name of its zealous 
discoverer, Prof. John Wolf. — J.T. ROTHROCK. 


Prertoprc Morrons or Leaves anp Prrats.— These phenomena, 
on which much has been written both in England and Germany, 
have been the subject of a fresh series of observations by the 
German botanist Batalin. He divides the different instances of 
motion into three groups: 

(1.). Rapid automatic motions caused by a special motile organ, 
the pulvinus, at the base of the leaf-stalk. (2.) Diurnal motions 
not so rapid but also resulting from a special motile organ. (3.) 
Diurnal motions belonging to the whole of the leaf-stalk and par- 
tially also to the surface of the leaf, but not connected with the 
presence of a pulvinus. The third of these classes, to which 

long the motions of petals which cause the opening and closing 
of flowers were the special subject of Batalin’s observations. | 
The ordinary explanation of the phenomenon has been the different 
degree of tension in the two sides of the leaf caused by a differ- 
ence in the amount of water contained in them, which explanation 
has however already been shown by Pfeffer not to meet all cases. 
Batalin agrees with Pfeffer’s conclusions and he considers the 
_ Main cause of the motion to be unequal growth of the two sides 
Caused by alternating differences in the light, temperature and 
` turgescence. He believes that the same cause is also one of those 
Most efficient in the other classes of periodic motions connected 
with special motile organs.— A. W. B. 


360 BOTANY. 


Ascent or SAP IN THE Bark or TreEs.— M. Faivre has recently 
performed a series of experiments on the mulberry, hazel-nut and 
cherry-laurel, which he considers go far to prove the fact that i 
‘the substances which supply the food of plants have’an ascending 
motion in the bark. For this purpose he made perfect or imper- 
fect annular incisions through the bark, or detached pieces of the 
bark to which buds were attached, or removed entire cylinders of 
bark from the trunk. The result of the experiments was that the 
buds always continued their development when the communica- aa 
tion remained uninterrupted with the lower portion of the trunk, 
while, when this communication was completely destroyed, the 
buds invariably withered away. If the bud was separated by a 
perfect annular incision, it withered the more slowly the greater 
its distance from the incision; and in these cases the starch disap- 
peared completely from the portions of the wood above the incision 
between it and the bud. When entire cylinders of bark with buds 
on them were removed, the buds continued to develop, and even 
produced branches bearing leaves.— A. W. B. 


BOTRYCHIUM LUNARIA Swarrz, 1x Micaican.— Last summer 
(August 14, 1873), I found this rare fern on one of the small 
rocky islands which lie off the southwest end of Isle Royale, 
Michigan (Lake Superior), which, from its general outline, o 
have named Triangle Island, it being unnamed hitherto on any of i 
the maps. i 

This is an important addition to the flora of Michigan; and 
though I am aware that the plant had already been discovered on 
Lake Superior, I am assured that this is the first time of its being 
found within the limits of the United States. 

The plants, of which I collected between thirty and forty, gre™ 
on the exposed sand-rock, among matted tufts of dwarfed Poten- 
tilla tridentata Ait., grass, and other plants. They are remark- 
ably fine, well developed specimens, and quite characteristic. br 
island is not wooded.— Henry Gititman, Detroit, Michigan. 


_ ABsorpTion or ÅMMONIA BY THE AERIAL Parts OF Braw : 
A point of considerable practical importance to agriculturists m 
been recently investigated in Germany, by M. Adolf Mayer g a 
Wiesbaden, viz., whether the aërial parts of plants have the pow” 
of absorbing ammonia or not. He carried out a series of pied ie 
ments on plants growing in such a manner that access of anm 


aS EEIE cee E een gy hs Saal A ne eee cS ee eee 


me See 


> ZOOLOGY. 361 


nia through the roots was prevented, while the leaves were sub- 
jected to the influence of this substance in either a gaseous or 
dissolved condition. The upshot of his experiments was that a 
variety of plants subjected to these conditions all had the power . 
of absorbing carbonate of ammonia by their aérial parts both in 
the gaseous and the dissolved condition and of employing it in 
the building up of their tissues. The plants did not appear how- 
ever to thrive when the access of ammonia through the roots was 
entirely prevented. The experiments did not indicate that Legu- 
minose have any special aptitude for absorbing ammonia through 
their aérial organs, nor for assimilating the combined nitrogen of 
the atmosphere.—A. W. B. 


ZOOLOGY. 
Per Sprpers.—Veritable pets they were, and why not? Wehear 
of pet cats, pet monkeys, pet toads, and an English naturalist 
had his tame wasp; then why not pet spiders? But without con- 
sidering why or why not I had them and enjoyed them for several 
months. The account which I now give of them is written from 
notes taken several years ago. I did not then nor do I now know 
the genus to which these spiders belonged, but think they may 
have been of the genus Lycosa. There were two taken at differ- 
ent times ; the first I found under a stone, the second was brought 
to me pretty thoroughly benumbed with wet. and cold, having been 
taken from a tub of water. I had already provided a domicile for 
my first capture in the shape of a large cigar box, covered with a 
pane of glass, and watched with some interést its reception of a 
new inmate, half expecting it would make an onslaught on the 
weaker one and kill it for its intrusion, but it manifested no in- 
terest whatever, until, enlivened by the warmth, the new comer 
began to move about, then it was evidently somewhat disturbed 
and kept to its own side of the box, and the stranger on coming 
to life enough to realize the presence of its fellow did likewise. 
Thus for a day or two they were exceedingly shy of each other, 
but in the course of a week their fear wore away and they were 
Peaceable companions enough, but this amicable arrangement 
Promised to end suddenly, as I thought, at one time, for while I 

Was watching them they ran toward each other ; as they met, rising 
on their hind legs, with the fore legs of each resting on the other’s 
head and body, with jaws widely distended, they appeared as if 


362 ZOOLOGY. 


about to engage in regular battle, but in a moment they dropped 
to their feet again and ran away from each other like two kittens 
at play ; this I saw them do many times afterward, always ending 
in the same manner. I also often saw them chase each other 
around the box, first one and then the other being the pursuer. 
I thought then and still think they were at play, for never in any 
instance did they bite one another, nor manifest an appearance of 
wanting to do so. The only time I ever saw them exhibit ill 
temper was when I gave them water to drink, which I did once a 
day, pouring a small quantity upon the bottom of the box; the 
spiders always ran quickly to it, and oftentimes would stand with 
all their feet in the little puddle that I made for them, drinking 
long and steadily, and sometimes in their eagerness crowding 
each other; then one would seem to lose his temper and would 
drive the other away from the water. Another and very neat way 
I had of supplying them with water wis with a piece of whalebone 
split fine at the end to form a sort of a brush; this would hold @ 


drop or two. I held it near to one of the spiders, but high enough 


to oblige it to rise on its hind legs almost erect to reach it; this 
either would do as readily as a dog would have risen to my hand 
for a piece of meat; after the first two or three times that I sup- 
plied them in this way, sustaining themselves by resting the fore 
legs on the whalebone, sucking the brush dry before letting g0 
of it. After a time I did not need to bring the whalebone near 
to them. I would merely show it inside the box and there was 4 
run for it, the first one reaching it getting the first drink, the other 
awaiting its turn; if was a matter of surprise to me that they 
eared to drink so often and so much. I had supposed spiders 
were capable of sustaining long fasts, both in eating and drinking; 
in fact the experience of others teaches us that such is the cas 
but in this instance they were ready to drink at least once a day: 
I supplied them well with flies for food and closely watched 
their method of taking them. The motion of a cat creeping 
upon a bird is as good an illustration as any of the method ; the 
spider would creep to within the distance of an inch of the fly; 
stand perfectly still a moment and then throw the body fo: 
as far as the length of the hind legs would admit, the hind feet 
not moving from the place on which they were fixed, preparatory 


to the spring. They did not often miss in the first effort, but, if 


they did, they made repeated attempts until the fly was captured, 


IAE AE E eres E INSONNI ie eee soe eae ki 
ERE aga! E EE EN N E EE ee ioe, E S N 3 


SOE at 


G 


ZOOLOGY. 363 


~- 


and after eating it they would set about cleaning, themselves, a 
matter in which they were very precise, commencing with the legs 
first to clean the body, and afterwards the legs with the jaws and 
palpi; commencing with the first right leg, then washing the first 
left, next the second right and so on until all were clean, depos- 
iting the accumulated dirt in a minute heap in front of them, 
pushing it away with the fore legs when they were done. On one 
. occasion I put a common house spider in the box with them, 
thinking that they would kill and eat it as they were much larger 
than the new spider, but instead of attacking it they seemed much 
alarmed and kept as far from it as possible. Thinking they would 
pluck up courage during the day I did not remove it; at night I 
found that the house spider had spun a web covering the most of 
the box, and my pets were stowed away in a corner completely 
cowed. I removed the house spider, tore out his web and they 
soon recovered their spirits and were as lively as ever 

I divided the box in which they were confined filling half to the 
top at one end with soft loam, thinking they would dig a hole in 
which to conceal themselves when so inclined, but they did not, 
though I saw evidence several times of their digging; in one 
instance the soil being excavated to some depth, but irregularly, 
having no appearance of the smooth round hole that we find in 
the fields dug by this or an allied species. I supplied a paper tube 
of suitable diameter and about three inches long, and this they 
both used, though rarely both at the same time; in only one or 
two instances did I find them both in it. Henry L. Moopy. 


Rerropucrion or a Fisu’s Ta. —In Lyell’s ‘‘ Principles of 

eology,”* occurs the following sentence: “The pectoral and 
tail fins of many fresh water fish, having been cut off, have been 
perfectly restored in about six weeks’ time.” As this statement 
embodies a fact with which many naturalists seem to be unac- 
quainted, I am glad to be able to give it a new confirmation. 

In the rooms of the Boston Young Men’s Christian Union there 
is a fine aquarium, well stocked with gold and other fish. Early 
-~ in the spring of 1873, the well known fish fungus (Achlya prolig- 
_ 4?) made its appearance in the tank, and several fine fishes died. 
Among the speciinens attacked by the fungus was a young gold- 
fish, which by some unknown means had lost its tail fin. The 


* Tenth London Edition, vol. ii, p. 478. 


364 ZOOLOGY. - 


- fungus came out all over the stump of the tail, the fish became 
sick, and was apparently dying. At the time I knew nothing of 
the nature of the destructive fungus, but having my attention called 
to the case, I at once concluded that I had to deal with some 
parasite, and resolved to try to exterminate it. . The only caustic 
available happened to be strong nitric acid, a few drops of which I 
applied to the affected tail stump, allowing it to remain a moment 
or two, after which I rinsed it off in clean water, and restored the 
fish to the tank. Of course the parasite was killed; the patches of 
fungus sloughed off, and the sick fish soon became well and healthy. 
A few days later I thought I saw more of the fungus appearing upon 
the previously affected part ; but, upon looking more closely, found 
that the appearance was really due to the growth of new rays. In 
the course of a month a new tail fin, perhaps a fourth of an inch 
long, had appeared, which continued to grow rapidly, so that in 
three months from the time of my experiment the fish could not be 
distinguished from others in the aquarium. The lost tail was repro- 
duced with absolute perfection, the reproduction taking place not 
only under my own eyes, but also under the observation of several 
competent witnesses. i ; 

This case seems to me interesting as a confirmation of what 
was already known, and also as showing that the reproduction of 
the lost part was not prevented even by the application of one 
the most powerful and destructive of all caustics. —F. W. CLARK. 


Tae Kixerets IN New Jersey.— We are somewhat surprised 
to find it stated in the latest work on North American ornithology 
that the two kinglets (Regulus satrapa and R. calendula) are not 


known to breed in the United States, but that a few are believed — 


to remain throughout the summer in Maine, “and probably breed 
in the dense Thuja swamps.” Both of these kinglets are quite 
abundant in New Jersey from early autumn until late in spring, 3$ 
is well known ; and we have twice stated (Geology of New J erm 
1868, p. 769, and volume iv of this Journal), that a few a 
viduals remain, during the breeding season, among the monii 
of Sussex county of this state. Both there and in the adjacent 
territory of Monroe and Pike counties, separdted from Sussex 
county by the Delaware River, here a narrow stream, the kinglets, 
a T E E E 


*A History of North American Birds by Messrs. Baird, Brewer and pidgw?”: 
Land Birds. Vol. i, p. 73-76, Boston, 1874. 


REE GATE Pe et Eg y 


Fs Se oy yey ees Sess aes R Pee 
A nee Nba, <a UA Re Boe rai dg ae Ta ences CA bres tO atau a eee 


ZOOLOGY. - 865 - 


in scanty numbers, unquestionably do remain throughout the sum- 
mer months. As I knew of their presence in June, July and 
August, I presumed they bred there, very naturally (both the pre- 
sumption and the breeding). In the summer of 1871, I had an 
opportunity of examining a number of warbler and other small bird 
skins, and among them were two unmistakable skins of Regulus 
calendula. These skins were marked ‘Laurel (Rhododendron) 
swamps, Monroe county, Penn., July 11, 1871.” 

What indeed is more likely than that these birds, which are so 
abundant during autumn, winter and early spring, should occa- 
Sionally remain as far south as New Jersey, especially when we 
consider that the northern portion of the state, and the adjacent 
counties of Pennsylvania, are all so admirably adapted to their 
wants and likings? Especially is this true of Monroe and Pike 
counties in Pennsylvania, where there are almost impenetrable rho- - 
= dodendron jungles and hemlock swamps. Throughout summer, 
. these wild by-ways are always cool and damp, just as a locality. 
some miles to the south, which has already been described in the 

Naturauist (vol. ii, p. 39) by T. C. Porter, who says of it, here “the 
ice accumulates in immense masses during the winter and lies un- 
disturbed until late in the spring.” It was here that Prof. Porter 
sought northern plants and was rewarded “by the discovery of 
Sedum Rhodiola DC.— an inhabitant of high latitudes in Europe 
and America.” Have we not here a precisely similar instance in 
botany, to that, in ornithology, of the presence of our two king- 
lets, during the summer months?) With our migratory birds the 
geography alone does not decide all their movements — the geology 
too has its influence; and this is notably the case with reference 
_ to the movements of the countless thousands of warblers that 
follow the valley of the Delaware on their northward migration in 
spring ; and also with those semi-arctic species that, visiting us in 
winter, are checked on their return sojourn, as summer approaches, 
by the dense, damp forests of the Delaware valley, where winter 
long seems to linger in the air, just as in April, in the hollows of 
the woods, the unsunned snow is still lingering when the fields 
and open glades are bright with violets, Epigzea and the columbine. 
—Cuarres C. Assort; M.D., Trenton, New Jersey, Feb. 18, 1874. 


Tae Hoyer-ants.—It is but a few years since this animal was 
described by Westmael, under the name‘of Myrmecocystus Mexi- 


. 866 ZOOLOGY. 


canus. What is known of it is still imperfect, and a prolonged 
study would elucidate many interesting facts. ; it 

I first saw this animal last summer in Santa Fé, but it was not 
till late in the fall that I had occasion to examine its habitation. 

A structure like a crater about one inch in diameter indicates 
where they live underground; they make no hills like other ants. 
A narrow canal of the diameter of a quill leads several feet deep, 
it is variously contorted and sometimes widened out toa chamber; 
in such chambers or cavities are seen stored up five, six and more 4 
honey-ants serving as a larder for the others that’ are not honey 
producing, the latter performing the other household duties; they 
are very small and of a yellow color. 

The opinion that the honey is discharged into receptacles is 
entirely erroneous ; the only receptacle is their own abdomen swol- 
len up to the size of a pea, clear, transparent ; the intestines even 
being recognized as a narrow canal winding through the rounded — 
and puffed-up abdomen. The strain on the membrane is such as 
almost to cause it to burst. Many do burst, for on digging up the 
habitation very carefully, one can often notice specks of the soil 
entirely saturated with liquid honey, and near by the collapsed 
ant. In many cases the rupture produces death, and the non- 
producing ants are seen around such places enjoying the sweet 
liquor. 

The honey has an agreeable taste, slightly acid in summer from 
a trace of formic acid, but perfectly neutral in autumn and winter; 
it contains a little more water than the honey of bees, and has there- i 
fore somewhat greater limpidity. The Mexicans press the an- 
mals, and use the gathered honey at their meals; others prepare 
by fermentation an alcoholic liquor from it. 
It would be worth while for beekeepers to try to introduce them 
into some kind of bee-hive fitted with a suitable dry soil and the 
proper food at hand for them. : 

_ The average weight of a non-producing ant is two milligrammesy 
that of a full honey-ant two hundred and forty milligrammes, a con- 
trast simply immense.— Dr. Oscar Loew, Chemist and Mineral- 
ogist to Lt. Wheeler’s Exploring Expédition. 


5 * 
I E (Ne Teese 


a 8 CPt 


Spizeria Brewen (?) 1x Massacuuserrs.—M. W. Stone brought i 
me a g sparrow shot December 15, 1873, in Watertown, Mat 
It was in company with S. monticola, I could not identify it W! 


ZOOLOGY. , : 367 


the aid of any of the books I had at hand, and so sent it to H. W. 
Henshaw, who kindly compared it with the series of S. Breweri 
he took in Arizona, now in the Smithsonian. He replies in sub- 
stance as follows :— *“ Though hardly typical Breweri it is strik- 
ingly that species—at any rate can be identitied with no other. 
The peculiarities may result from a modification by climatic 
influences, or may be merely individual abnormality. The whole 
upper parts, but particularly the crown, are almost exactly as in 
Breweri proper (no trace of chestnut on crown) ; the same is the 
case regarding relative lengths of wing and tail, the latter being 
longer than the former in Breweri (wing 2°40, tail 2-60 in Breweri) 
wing 2°52, tail 2°63 in this specimen. In S. socialis these pro- 
portions are reversed. The bill is strikingly diminutive, smaller 
than in any Spizella I ever saw. ‘The bill and feet are darker than 
in Breweri, while a strong ashy suffusion of the under parts, which 
also to less degree tinges the whole plumage, are points of dissimi- 
larity from the characteristic flaxen or gray-colored shades of 
Breweri, and an approach to socialis.” — WILLIAM BREWSTER, 
Cambridge, Mass. 

[Nore.— Dr. Coues, on reading the above, says that he care- 
fully examined the specimen while it was in Mr. Henshaw’s hands, 
aud agrees that it cannot be distinguished specifically trom Brew- 
eri, though it has some points about it indicating socialis, sug- 
esting a possible hybrid of the two.— Eps. ] 


Tse Cumnery SWIFT; CHANGE IN PLACE or Nestine.—I1 see 
by the NATURALIST of December, 1873, that Mr. J. H. Sears, of 
Beverly, Mass., has noticed Chetura pelasgia to forsake the old 
chimney and build its nest in a barn in company with the barn 
Swallows (Hirundo horreorum). A similar instance came under 
my observation a few years ago. A pair of chimney swifts se- 
lected the end of a barn inside, and there, about three feet below 
the vertex of the roof, built and reared their young for several 
years. This was jn Lewis Co., N. Y. As this country became 
Settled, these birds deserted the hollow trees of the forest and 
took up their abode in our chimneys. But here they find, after 
Sad years of experience, that during every heavy rain (unless the 
Mouth of the chimney is very small) numbers of their nests are 
_ Washed away. And now we see that some of them, at least, have 
Come to the wise conclusion that they are “never too old to learn” 


* 


368 aN ZOOLOGY. 


and have acted accordingly. Is not this a good example of the 
influence of civilization and domestication upon the habits of 
birds, and can it all be attributed to instinct ?—C. Hart MERRIAM. 


Tur Myrrorpop Cermata Poisonous. — Day before yesterday, _ 
a lady in this house stepped on a Cermatia forceps when she was 
barefoot. It was evening and dark. She thought at first that she 
had trodden on a carpet tack, but it seemed quite different soon, 
more like the effects of a coal of fire. 

She lighted the gas, and saw the large Cermatia which bit her. 
It was wounded by her tread and had its revenge. It bit just be- 
tween the toes and her foot swelled a good deal, and pained her 
so much that she consulted me. But it yielded to an application 
of ammonia and camphor. 

The swelling and pain continued about thirty-six hours, keeping 
her awake most of one night.—Jostan Curtis, M. D., Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Burp Crusracea.— A new and interesting genus of Decapod 
Crustacea has been described by Mr. Wood-Mason (ins the Pro- 
ceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, August, 1872) which 
was dredged in deep water off the eastern coast of the Andaman 
Islands, and which is closely allied to the northern European 
Nephrops Norvegicus, but, like Calocaris MacAndree of Bell, is 
destitute of the organs of vision.— Prof. Wesrwoop’s Address 
before the Entomological Society of London. 


os ee 


BIRDS AND CATERPILLARS. — [In the very timely article from Dr. 
Packard in the May Narurarisrt, Mr. C. J. Maynard is reported 
as stating, that no bird but the Baltimore oriole will feed on the 


cuckoo fairly exterminated this pest in an orchard near the college, 
though the tents existed in great numbers. Both the robin ane 
blue-jay will eat the larvæ of the Dryocampa senataria, and M 
eating them have done great service to our state. —A. J. Coi 
Agricultural College, Lansing, Mich. 

A sintstrat HeLIX ALBoLaBrIs.— While collecting land 
with Mr. Anson Allen of Orono, Maine, we found a sinistr 
of the Helix albolabris with the animal still alive in it, but 9 w 
lip had not been turned, Mr. Allen took it home and kept it till 
the lip was fully turned.— C. H. FERNALD. oH 


GEOLOGY. 369 


Nore on Preservine Insecrs IN CoLLECTIONS.— I have devised 
a method for preserving insects without the trouble of camphor. 
No Psocus, nor Cheyletus eruditus, nor other pest dares enter a 
box after I have treated it. Having a clean-papered box I wash 
it with common carbolic acid (disinfecting solution) with two-thirds 
water. It dries without any stain, and I find, after many months’ 
trial, a perfect result. Sheets of card thus medicated give me all 
the small, soft Hemiptera, etc., with antenne, etc., not eaten by 
Psocus, as was formerly the case.— T. A. MARSHALL, in Entomol- 
ogist’s Monthly Magazine. 


GEOLOGY. 


Derr Sea Exprorations (Report Brit. Assoc. in Atheneum for 
Sept. 27).—The largest audience of the week was gathered to- 
gether on Tuesday morning (the final sitting), to hear Comman- 
der J. E. Davis discourse “On the recent Achievements of the 
Challenger Deep-sea Expedition.” Capt. Davis confined himself 
to the proceedings of the Challenger Expedition north of the 
equator, which formed a natural section of the voyage. The 
operations with which he chiefly dealt were the deep-sea soundings 
viewed in their relations to physical geography rather than to zo- 
ology, which, as is well known, occupies a large portion of the at- 
tention of the scientific staff of the Expedition. He described 
and exhibited to the meeting the various mechanical contrivances 
adopted to sound the greatest depths with accuracy, ascertain the 
temperatures, and bring up mineral and zoological specimens from 
the bottom. In the course of the voyage outward from the Thames 
to Gibraltar, and thence to Madeira and the Canaries, the first in- 
teresting set of soundings were taken off the entrance to the Straits 
of Gibraltar. The soundings over a large area in this section are 
as follows: just beyond the meridian of Cape St. Vincent, due 
West of the straits, 2,500, 2,125, and 2,250 fathoms; and, again, 
between Madeira and the Canaries 2,350, 2,400, 2,200, and 1,975 
athoms; but westward and northward, outside this area, the 
depths diminish to 1,525, 1,400, 1,550, and 1,650 fathoms. These 
results seem to indicate the existence of another deep basin out- 
side the Mediterranean, circumscribed by a ridge similar to the 
two deep basins within that sea. Great depths were found close 
Up to the islands of the Madeira and Canaries group, but a much 

AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 


- 870 ANTHROPOLOGY. - 


more abrupt elevation from the sea-bed was presented in Bermuda. 
The deepest sounding yet made in the ocean was at a point eighty 
miles distant from these islands, where a depth of 3,875 fathoms 
was found. Five miles of rope was run out with the sounding ap- 
paratus, taking one hour and twelve minutes in its course. The 
other soundings taken around Bermuda prove it to be a peak, 
formed by coral animals, rising abruptly from the abysmal depth 
of 1,500 to 1,820 fathoms— comparable, as Dr. Carpenter observed, 
to the Matterhorn. Between the West Indies (St. Thomas) and 
the Canaries, nearly in the middle of the Atlantic, shallower depths 
were found, showing that a submarine ridge here exists. The 
depths over the ridge are 1,900 and 1,950 fathoms, whilst on either 
side of it a broad basin extends, deepening to 2,650 fathoms in the 
western basin, and 3,150 fathoms inthe eastern. In crossing from 
Bermuda to the latitude of New York, especial attention was di- 
rected to the Gulf-Stream, both as to the depth and temperature 
of the current. A sounding of 2,425 fathoms was obtained just 
within the southern edge of the famous stream. From serial tem- 
peratures taken at various depths in the stream, it was found that 
in this part of its course the warm water does not extend beyond 
100 fathoms in depth. It was found to be 57 miles broad, rapid 
only along the western edge, where there was a belt of water 15 
miles wide, running 34 to 4 miles an hour, and 3° Fahr. higher in 
temperature than the other parts of the stream.— American Journal 
of Science. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 

A Human SKELETON FROM tHe Dituyrom.—M. Riviére who 
discovered the famous human skeleton at Mentone in 1872 has 
recently (March, 1873) exhumed another in the cavern of Baouné 
Roussée at Venti Niglia near Mentone in the South of France. 
The cavern is twenty-seven or twenty-eight metres above the level 
of the sea and about twelve metres deep. The ground is cove 
by a layer of red conglomerate about a metre in thickness. 
Beneath this layer are large blocks of stone which appeared to be 
piled up about the entrance and among these blocks were found 
the first traces of a human dwelling. Round about were scatte 
bones of the genera Cervus and Capra mixed with shells of Patella 
and Mytilus and a few stone and bone implements. At a depth 
of three and three-fourths metres below this upper habitation was 


| 
; 
3 
a 


ade ea 


MICROSCOPY. 371 


found a second with numerous animal remains, the age of which 
did not admit of a doubt, and among them a human skeleton. 
The most important among the animal remains were bones of the 
hyzena, horse, marmot, Ursus speleeus, Bos primigenius and various 
species of deer, but none of the reindeer; also numerous rerhains 
of birds, and of land and marine mollusks. The weapons and in- 
struments were made partly of bone, partly of stone, and belong 
in no case to the period of polished stone implements, but to the 
oldest stone age; some of the smaller instruments were made of 
quartzite or felsite. The human skeleton was not in so good a 
state of preservation as the other previously discovered ; it lay 
extended on its back near the entrance to the cavern, the ground 
round it being cov ered with a stratified deposit of ashes, charcoal, 
fragments of bone, teeth of animals, mussel shells and stone im- 
plements. The height of the skeleton must have been, when per- 
fect, as much as two metres or a little over, i. e. about six feet, six 
inches. M. Riviére refers without hesitation both the skeletons 
found near Mentone to the older stone age, about the end of the 
epoch of the cave-bear and Rhinoceros tichorhinus.— A. W. B. 


MICROSCOPY. 

ARRANGING Draromacem.—The convenience of having diatom- 
ace arranged for observation is appreciated by all who make a 
study of this attractive branch of microscopic research. 

The first requisite is a mechanical finger which may be had 
very cheaply after the following pattern:—A plate A (Fig. 79) 
is attached to the body of the microscope by the objective of from 
l inch to 2 inch. To this plate is attached the part B perpen- 
dicular to A; this has the projections b and b' through which 
works the sliding shaft C, the lower part of which is square fitting 
accurately in the projection b. The shaft, the upper part of which 
is furnished with a screw-thread, is raised by turning the milled 
head H, the spiral spring F moving it downward. The arms D 
are attached to the shaft and to these the needle holder d in which 
the needle is placed at an angle of about 45°. This finger can be 
used with nicety with a little practice, and can be made by any 
One that has a little mechanical ability. I have made one that did 
hot cost over 25 cents for the materials. 

The other requirement is a stage plate to carry the thin glass 
Cover. It should be about 14X44 inches, upon which is made to 


372 MICROSCOPY. 


revolve a turntable represented by Fig. 80. A is the plate, B the 
turntable, the use of which in locating the object is apparent, C 


Fig. 79. 


an aperture about } inch in diameter for the transmission of light 
to the cover on which the arrangement is being made. 
The cover should be coated by a very thin film of the purest 
gelatine dissolved in distilled water. 
he process is now easily consummated. The cleaned diatoms 


Fig. 80. 


being evenly spread upon a glass slip and the slip placed po 
stage, select the specimen desired, let the sliding shaft 0 


MICROSCOPY. 373 


by turning the milled screw till the point of the needle (which 
should be very fine, or a bristle may be used if preferred) touches 
the object, give it a few backward turns to lift it clear, then more 
rapidly by means of the coarse adjustment of the microscope ; 
substitute the stage plate with the cover attached to it by some 
kind of cement and carry the plate, by means of stage movement, 
so that the object may be let down in the required position on 
the glass cover. Another may then be placed beside it, etc. 
After completing the arrangement, moisten the glue by breathing 
upon it or holding in the vapor of distilled water, though the 
latter is liable to wash the objects out of place unless dextrously 
managed. They are then secure and will sometimes bear rough 
Usage in mounting without becoming displaced. Occasionally 
there will be a specimen that will adhere to the needle so persis- 
tently that we are liable to consider patience no longer a virtue. 
In such cases try another specimen, as different diatoms of the 
same species vary greatly in grade of difficulty. My experience 
is that discoid forms are most easily arranged and the light Navi- 
cule the most difficult. Sometimes air prevents the balsam from 
entering the frustule, which may be avoided by separating the 
valves of such as will admit of it, when time is of no consideration. 

Thus any one of the requisite mechanical tastes can have slides 
of diatomacee arranged in squares or otherwise to suit the fancy, 
and a large number of specimens be examined without change of 
slides. The finest specimens’ may be thus secured, from impure 
gatherings, and reference made to any particular specimen without 
the use of the “ finder.” —W. W. River, Greene, Iowa. 


Histotogy.— Dr. James Tyson’s magazine article, narrating his 
experience in the laboratories of Dr. Klein of London and of Prof. 
Stricker of Vienna, has been raised to a little book and published 
by Lippincott as an Introduction to Practical Histology. The 
additions to the original article are not extensive, but are designed 
to make it more comprehensive and more available as a hand-book 
for actual beginners in histology. While almost every microscop- 
ical treatise is full of mounted objects and mounting objects, it is 
refreshing to find even a small work which says hardly a word 
about either, but devotes itself entirely to microscopical study. 
Like most histologists, the author values highly the vertical use 
of the microscope, and says little of the binocular instrument. 


3874 MICROSCOPY. 


He believes the “vegetable spores” of Salisbury and the “ele- 
mentary corpuscles” of Zimmermann are fragments of the larger 
colorless blood corpuscles. For embedding tissues preparatory to 
cutting sections of them, he pins them into the’ centre of little 
boxes extemporized out of white paper, and pours the melted em- 
bedding material around them ; seeming to prefer for this purpose 
the medium suggested by Dr. J. G. Hunt, which consists of 
common transparent soap cut into small pieces and melted ina 
water-bath with the aid of alcohol, this. being a cleanly and trans- 
parent material which can be kept in a bottle and easily melted 
(by placing the bottle in warm water) and poured out when nec- 
essary. The only serious mistake in the book is the measurement 
of the image, in estimating magnifying power, at the distance of 
the stage instead of at ten inches; an erroneous procedure repeat 
edly pointed out by us in other cases, and in this case beautifully 
illustrated by the direction on the same page to measure it, whey 
using the camera lucida, at the distance of ten inches, which of 
course would give the same results in exactly those instruments 
whose stage happened to be ten inches from the observer's eye: 
On the whole, beginners in histology should thank Dr. Tyson for 
a neat, handy, and timely work whose usefulness is far in advance 
of its size. 


MORPHOLOGY or THE SAPROLEGNIEI.— This doubtful i 
that seems now finally deposited in the alge, has now considerable 
economic interest from the destructive effects produced upon fis 
eggs in the hatching trays, supposed to be caused by Achlya pr i 
lifera. The following summary is translated from advance shee pi 
of “ Contributions to the morphology and systematic relation 
the Saprolegniei ;” by N. Pringsheim. (Jahrbuch fur wissenscha 
licher Botanik, ix, Bd. 2tr. Heft.) a 

The results of my investigations on the Saprolegniel mM 
condensed as follows: <4 ae 

1. In all the Saprolegniei the male organs. of generation m 
velop from the well known antheridia, that are formed neat 
grow toward the oogonia. ‘ 

2. Those in which antheridia or their equivalents are "a 
are not, as has been supposed, distinct species, with modifi pud 
gans, but parthenogenetic forms, whose sporangia ripen and bus 
without fertilization. 


ay be 


MICROSCOPY. 875 


3. In the Saprolegniei there is but one kind of sporangia ; 
those which develop parthenogenetically, and those which are fer- 
tilized are identical, and show no difference originally. The un- 
fertilized zoospores grow sooner and more readily than those 
which are fertilized. 

4. Several peculiarities in the formation of zoospores, which 
have been considered sufficient specific distinctions, are not import- 
ant as such, but are merely evidences of a greater or less tendency 
to dimorphism, representing various stages of development in the 
zoospores. 

5. Also various sexual forms of growth may appear in the 
same species, which are not reliable as specific distinctions.— 

S. 


Section CUTTERS. — At the Queckett Club, Mr. T. C. White al- 
luded to the impracticable expensiveness of many excellent sec- 
tion cutters, and stated that he had used with great success @ 
contrivance, which consisted of a brass tube fastened at right angles 
with a brass plate, upon which a glass plate with a corresponding 
aperture was cemented for a cutting surface. The substance to 
be cut was embedded in an inner tube which was simply pressed 
up by the finger when required. 

Mr. Walter White read a paper on the “ Science-Gossip” section 
cutter in which the plug holding the object is raised by slight blows 
upon a wedge, instead of by a screw. 

The President, Dr. R. Braithwaite, said that he did not possess 
a section machine, but was accustomed to cut sections of sphag- 
num and other leaves by inserting them in a slip of soft cork and 
cutting them by hand. 


LecTurE-ILLUsTRATIONS OF Microscopic Oxnsects.— Rev. W. H. 
Dallinger has communicated to the Royal Microscopical Society 
an improved method of preparing transparencies for use with the 
lime-light and lantern. He finds large drawings unsatisfactory 
for a large audience, as well as incomplete in detail, unless pre- 
pared with great labor and skill, and the usual transparencies for 
screen use, whether photographed or painted, cost too much time 
and labor to be always available. To obviate these difficulties, he 
draws the magnified image on a surface of finely ground glass of 
the size of a magic-lantern slide. , The drawing is as easily done 
as upon card, using a black lead pencil, and the camera lucida if 


376 MICROSCOPY. 


G 


i 
necessary. Colors may be added, if desired, by a sable-hair pencil. 
The surface is then protected, and ‘the drawing instantly changed 
- into a transparency, by flowing thin balsam over it and allowing 
it to dry as a thin film over the surface. In the same manner 
illustrations of subjects not microscopical may be easily and 
rapidly prepared. 


Popura ScaLes.—A happy accident has furnished Mr. F. H. 
Wenham a supply of specimens that seem to confirm the theory 
he so strongly defends of the reality of the spines on this most 
disputed of “tests.” A favorite specimen which contained a 
detached spine having been destroyed, and an effort to remove 
uninjured the large scales which adhered to the broken cover-glass 
having failed, he scraped off the scales at random with a sharp 
knife edge and mounted the fragments, and was pleased to find 
many of the fragments cut obliquely in such manner as to leave 
the spines (!) cut at a different plane and manifestly projecting 

yond the other portions. Mr. Wenham’s drawings certainly 
seem to confirm his descriptions, and photographs of the same 
appearances are promised. 


Lenetuenep Immersion Tusr.— Mr. E. Richards, of the Royal 
Microscopical Society, renders the familiar immersion arrange- 
ment available in deep water, eight to ten inches, by screwing in 
an adapter between the objective and the nose piece of the micro- 
scope. This carries the objective with its immersion cap down 
through the stage and into a tank of water beneath it. 


Automatic TURN-TABLE.— Dr. F. B. Kimball prefers this 
arrangement to the usual method of turning by hand. He uses 
the works of a common clock, putting a pin through the shaft x 
the table and cutting a slot in the hand arbor of the clock-work, 
and then mounting the turn-table so that the pin will catch in the 
slot and the two move together. 


_ OriciN or BLoop Corruscres.—Dr. H. D. Schmidt, of New 
Orleans, has communicated an elaborate study of this subject to 
the Royal Microscopical Society. His studies were chiefly directed 
to human embryos of six weeks old, and upward. He is eon 
vinced that the nucleus only, of the colorless blood-corpuscles, 1 
developed into the red corpuscle. He strongly confirms the prev- 
alent opinion that the spleen and lymphatic glands are the perme 


NOTES. 377 


nent blood-formative organs. He looks upon the blood corpuscle 
as a gland-cell destined to promote within itself the transformation, 
into other elements, of certain materials derived from the liquor 
sanguinis, and when matured to give back directly “to the liquor 
sanguinis, by its final dissolution, its secretion, consisting of its 
own bod 


SUBSTITUTE FOR THE CAMERA Lucipa.—Mr. W. Kesteven, Jr., 
substitutes the thinnest possible cover-glass for the tint-glass com- 
monly used for camera lucida purposes. He does not appear to 
suffer from the difficulty of too great transparency which has de- 
terred others from its use. 


NOTES. 

Two months ago, in announcing the provision made by the Leg- 
islature of Kentucky for a geological survey, we asked whether 
the time were not coming for a careful geological and zoological 
survey of Massachusetts. Since then, active measures have been 
taken to secure this result. The American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences (the oldest and highest scientific body in the state) has 
petitioned the Legislature, and a memorial, referred at first to the 
Committee on Education, has now been placed in the hands of the 
Board of Education with instructions to investigate the matter and 
report at the assembling of the next legislature. The memorial 
of the Academy, before its adoption, was thoroughly considered 
by a special committee, consisting of the President (Hon. Charles 
Francis Adams) Professors William B. Rogers and T. Sterry 
Hunt, and Messrs. George B. Emerson, Alex. Agassiz, S. H. 
Scudder and R. H. Dana, Jr., so that we can have no doubt of a 
favorable report from the Board of Education. 

The publications of such a survey, says the Academy, in its 
memorial, should embrace a detailed topographical map, on a scale 
of about an inch to a mile, maps colored to show the distribution 
of rock-formations and economic minerals, with charts on a larger 
scale of particular localities, having special interest or importance ; 
sections and explanatory text to accompany these maps, embrac- 
ing descriptions and analyses of the rocks and ores and of the 
waters, and investigations into the strength and durability of our 
building-stones ; full descriptions and truthful illustrations of the 
animals and plants, including their natural history, transforma-_ 
tions and relations to man and his requirements. 


378 NOTES. 


The memorial goes on to show that in carrying out the survey 
the State could take advantage of the provision made by Congress, 
by which any State undertaking a topographical survey of its ter- 
ritory is empowered to call upon the United States Coast Survey to 
make the preliminary triangulations, so that the State is at once 
relieved of a very important part of the work to be done. In 
making these triangulations, the Coast Survey utilizes the expe- 
rience of local professors and their students; and in the same 
way, it would be entirely feasible, in following the trigonomet- 
rical with the topographical survey, to employ the services, 
in different parts of the State, of the same persons. The survey 
would thus become at once a most valuable auxiliary to scien- 
tific education, by giving the younger men in our schools of 
science and technology an opportunity to put their studies to 
practical use. 

The Academy places in a conspicuous light the educational ad- 
vantages which would accrue from such an undertaking and urges 
that the reports under the proposed survey should, as far as pos- 
sible, be prepared with special reference to an intelligent use by 
the people; and that, instead of being distributed gratuitously, 
they should be sold through the ordinary agencies at a slight ad- 
vance upon the cost, so as to enable the State to pay the authors 
from the proceeds of the sales, and to recover the greater part of 
its original outlay, without placing the books beyond thè reach of 
persons of moderate means. Such a mode of publication would 
unquestionably be the most economical for the State, and the mos 
certain to bring the books directly and naturally into the hands of 
those who would value and use them. 

These suggestions are timely and important, and if faithfully 
followed, would reduce by one-half the ordinary expenses of such 
a survey. One or two further suggestions, however, are needed; 
that the Legislature should at the start ensure the continuance of 
the survey for a term of years, ten or fifteen at least ; and that the 
appointments should be removed from the domain of politics oF of 
personal preferment. Why should not the nominating power 
intrusted to such a body as the American Academy? This meas- 
ure would give confidence in the success of the survey- 

We bespeak from our Massachusetts readers all the aid they can 
render in this matter. If the movement fail now, it may be years 
before we can hope to see it urged again with the least chance of 


NOTES. 379 


success. Educational institutions and associations should bear 
their testimony to its. importance, and every one interested in the 
cause of education, every lover of nature should make this a matter 
of public notoriety and publiċ interest, and obtain for it the hearty 
cooperation of members of the cdming Legislature. We shall re- 
vert again to this topic and keep our readers acquainted with any 
new development. 


Necessity of a Common Language in Natural Science. «It 
may be asked why I, in my catalogue of arachnological literature, 
have not included any other works than those written in Latin or in 
the living languages of Teutonic or Roman origin. The reason is, 
not that I undervalue what may have been written in other lan- 
guages (which I am very far from doing), but simply that I am 
unable to understand even the titles of works written in, for ex- 
ample, Russian, Polish, Bohemian, Finnish, or Magyar ; and thus 
I have only by accident come to learn that a couple of works in 
these languages treat on arachnological subjects. 

“It may in general be taken for granted that a person of liberal 
education has some acquaintance with Latin, and knows at least 
one Teutonic and one Romanic language; and when this is the 
case, he can, without any great waste of time, learn so much of 
the others as to be able, with the help of a grammar and a diction- 
ary, to understand the purely descriptive works within his own 
department that are written in those languages. This is probably 
the reason why, in determining questions of priority, it is custom- 
ary to attribute as much importance to works written in, for in- 
stance, Portuguese or Swedish as to those written in any of the 
more generally studied languages. But it is, of course, impossible 
to assign the same weight to all languages. No naturalist can 
have time to acquire the knowledge of all the European languages 
which have already a scientific literature to show; and the lan- 
guages of this part of the world will assuredly not long continue 
to keep exclusive possession of that territory. It would seem, 
therefore, to be absolutely necessary, even for the future, in the 
selection of the works of which a zoologist or botanist ought to 
be expected to possess a knowledge, and which, in the determina- 
tion of questions of priority, ought to be taken into account, to 
confine one’s self to those which are written in the living lan- 
guages of Teutonic or Roman origin and in Latin. 


380 NOTES. 


‘‘The want of a common scientific language will unquestionably 
become gradually more and more felt; and as a return to Latin 
can hardly be expected, it is not improbable that English may 
sometime or other acquire that rank, not only because that lan- 
guage is far more widely diffused over every part of the earth than 
any other culture-language, and that already two of the greatest 
nations publish in it the results of their scientific labors, but 
because English, on account of its simple grammar and as com- 
bining in nearly the same degree Teutonic and Romanic elements, 
is by most Europeans more easily acquired than any other lan- 
guage.”—Remarks on Synonymes of European Spiders, 1873, p. 
583 (a work written entirely in elegant idiomatic English).— By 
Prof. T. THORELL, of Upsala.— Annals and Mag. Nat. History. 

We may add that De Candolle, the Swiss botanist, has lately ad- 
vocated the use of the English language as a common scientific lan- 
guage, and in this connection we quote the remarks of Mr. G.O. 
Sars, the well known zoologist of Norway, in the introđuction to 
his elaborate work on animal life at great depths off the Norwe- 
gian coast. : 


Tue present indications are that the meeting of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, at Hartford, in Au- 
gust, will be one of unusual interest and will be largely attended. 
The citizens of Hartford have commenced the work of making ar- 
rangements for the meeting with great enthusiasm, and the wel 
known liberality and wealth of the city make it certain that 
the local arrangements will be made as perfect as possible. 48 
favorable to the success of the meeting we notice a new feature 
in the local sub-committees, that of the appointment of @ number 
of ladies as a Committee of Reception. The circular of the Per- 


NOTES. 581 


manent Secretary of the Association has been issued, and that of 
the Local Committee will soon follow. When the latter is pub- 
lished we shall give a summary of the local arrangements. The 
circular of the Permanent Secretary, as well as the necessary blanks 
for the entry of papers to be read at the meeting, and for applica- 
tion for membership, can be obtained by addressing him. There 
are hundreds of persons in the country who, though deeply inter- 
ested in its object, are not yet members of the Association. 
Many would join the Association and aid in its work if they were 
more fully acquainted with its rules and character, and such we 
recommend to apply to the Permanent Secretary for further 
information. Among the business matters to be attended to at 
the meeting, will be the acceptance of the Act of Incorporation 
giving a legal existence to the Association ; while the new Consti- 
tution proposed at Portland will be acted upon. We learn that 
the Portland volume of Proceedings is nearly printed, and that it 
will contain many of the most important papers read at the meet- 
ing. A number of members whose papers were accepted for pub- 
lication have not sent in their manuscripts, notwithstanding the 
very long time allowed them to do so. We also learn that the 
Committee on the donation by Mrs. Thompson have accepted and 
commenced printing a monograph on “ Fossil Butterflies,” by Mr. 
udder. This work, which will be an exhaustive treatise on.the 
subject, fully illustrated, and of quarto size, will form the first of 
the special memoirs of the Association, and in every way will be 
worthy of the liberal patroness. The following are the officers 
elected for the Hartford meeting which will open on August 12th: 
— President, Dr. J. L. Le CONTE, of Philadelphia, Pa. ; Vice Presi- 
dent, Prof. C. S. Lyman, of New Haven, Conn.; Permanent Sec- 
retary, Mr. F. W. Purnam, of Salem, Mass.; General Secretary, 
A. Q. Hamuin, of Bangor, Me. ; Treasurer, Mr. WILLIAM S. 
Vaux, of Philadelphia, Pa. Standing Committee, ex officio, Ex 
President, Prof. Josrru Lovertne, of Cambridge, Mass. ; Ex Vice 
President, Mr. A. H. Wortuen, of Springfield, Ill. ; Ex General 
Secretary, Prof. C. A. Warre, of Brunswick, Me.; President, 


382 NOTES. 


Tue Frencn AssocIration for the Advancement of Science.— 
We copy the following from an extended notice in ‘ Nature,” as 
showing the high stand the French Association has taken, and the 
cordial support it has received, and also as containing sugges- 
tions that the American Association might, with proper modifica- 
tions, follow to great advantage :— 


volume „930 pages, aira upwards of 200 papers, ad- 
dresses and lectures on a wide variety of subjects, connected wit 
science, p or applie The vol is also well illustrated, 


ceedings. 
The French Association, as our readers no doubt know, made a 


Th 
membres fondateurs, who subscribe one or more shares of the cap- 
ital of the Association, a share amounting to 500 francs; there 
are about 250 m of this class, some of whom have sub- 


the Association possessed a capital of eat 140,000 francs, and 


an annual revenue of more than 16,000 fra 
The F French ape is + modelled prety closely afte 
er 


bl 
theory and of “the o i of their oe applications” 
tures, publications, and donations of a or money to 
persons engaged in scientific researches; It appeals for help to 
all those ‘who believe that the cultivation of science is necessary 
to the greatness and the prosperity of the country.’ 

The cosy is divided into four groups, and each group into 
several section the groups are—1. The Mathematical Sci- 
ences; 2. Physical and Chemical Sciences; 3. Natural Sciences j 
4. Econo omic Sciences. The French Association devotes mo 
tention to the paea application of scientific principles aei 
does the British one; the 1st group, for example, including See 
tions of Navigation and of Civil and Militar y Engineering : "e 
s group including the Medical Sciences, and t e 4th group Ag 


NOTES. 383 


A Soctery has lately been organized in Detroit, Michigan, des- 
ignated the Detroit Scientific Association, and having for its ob- 
ject the advancement of scientific knowledge in all its branches. 
At a meeting held on April 16, 1874, the regular election of offi- 
cers for the ensuing term took place, with the following result: 
President, Dr. Geo. P. Andrews; 1st Vice President, E. C. 
Skinner; 2d Vice President, Prof. J. M. B. Sill; Cor. Secretary, 
Dr. A. B. Lyons; Recorder and Cabinet Keeper, E. Wolfenden ; 
Treasurer, C. C. Cadman; Librarian, J. C. Holmes; Curators, 
D. Farrand Henry, Fredrick Stearns, Henry Gillman. 

Commencing with a list of over thirty charter members, and 
with promises of large accessions to the number, the society bids 
fair to become one of the prominent institutions of usefulness in 
this city. 

After adjournment the newly elected curators held a meeting 
with a view to make the necessary arrangements for procuring 
suitable rooms for the Association as soon as possible, a large 
number of specimens, books, etc., having already been offered for 
the museum and library. 


ARrcHZOLOoGY will be well attended to in northern Europe this 
year. The “Congress of Archeology and Prehistoric Anthropol- 
ogy” will meet in Stockholm on August 7th, and will continue in 
session for nine or ten days. The government has asked from the 
Diet, a grant of 20,000 fr. towards defraying the expenses of the 
Meeting. A magnificent palace has been set apart for the holding 
of the Congress, and the King and the city will each give grand 
fêtes. Visitors will be carried over the railroads at half fares, and 
many excursions will be made. The “Congrès d’ archéologie 
Slave” will be held at Kiew from Aug. 14th to Sept 3d. As “ Na- 
ture” states, the students of prehistoric man will have a good time 
of it in northern Europe this summer. 


American Association, and they also appointed a committee to 
bring before the Hartford meeting for discussion, a code of rules 


384 BOOKS RECEIVED. 


for securing uniformity of nomenclature among American Ento- 
mologists. The chemists are proposing the celebration of the Cen- 
tennial of Chemistry and the indications are that the celebration 
will take place at Hartford, during the week of the Association 
meeting, though this is not yet officially determined. 


Since the publication of our note about the Anderson School 
of Natural History in the May number, we have learned that in 
addition to the instructors there named, Dr. W. S. Barnard will 
give lectures on the Protozoa, Prof. D. 8. Jordan will take charge 
of the department of Marine Botany, and Mr. P. Roetter will give 
instruction in drawing. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Memoires de? Academie Royale de Copenhague. Vol. X, no. 3, 1873, 4to. 
Manat « Tavier om Arterne af Sage CRS Latr. eller Hrailusne. Af Chr. Fr. Lut- 
en. avler 
0.4. Almindelige Egenskaber ved Systemer af plane Kurver, me ndelse til Bestemmelse 
-A la Ta eristikerne t ida 


elementære Systemer af fjerde Orden. ‘ed 5 Tavler. Af H. G. Zeut- 


aA Thermochemiske Undersogelser. x11. Undersogelser over Ilinings og Reductions- 
midler,” Ved T ee set vite =p 
No. En op tni den Eul ri E oa E til P kansen, Wide ve ’ 
hvor ‘Mog N ere alge sn 0 e Fu nitione Af P, C. V. Hansen, 1873. 
litustrated Catalogue Si the Muse F Gore chive Zoology at Harvard Col 
Revision o mak Fend. “Pat iv. by A assiz. Cambridge, isa. “ith lates. 
No. Ee chini, m and Corals. By pits ander Agassiz an „de Pourtales, Cam- 
bridge, it f, me Besez In I 1874. Salem 
ulletin of the Essex aniihi. 8vo. Vol. vi, Nos. 1and?2. Jan, and Feb., e 
El piri n Cometen Vom Jahre 1830, mit Berucksichtigung von 319 Beobachtungen 
von. Dr. L Se ia ak 8vo. Leipzig, 1873, Zur ; 
r offentlichen Sitzung der k. Akademie der Wissenschaften am 25, Juli 1873, ; 
Yorteier nek Sa enoobsten Geburtsfestes Sr. Majestat des Konigs Ludwig ii. J. von aise ke Sig 
4to. Munch F 
Der Antheil der k, bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften an der Entwickelung der Electri- gee 
ctiatolehre: Vortrag in der offentlichen Sitzung der k. Akademie der Wissen e am 25 es Ki phig 
i873. Zur Vorfeier des allerhochsten Geburts-nnd Namensfestes Sr. Majestat 2 
co gs ii, gehalten von W. Beetz ordentl. Mitglied der mathem, physik, Classe vig 


Ove sigt over det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Porkan og dets pen 
mers Are dar 1 Aaret 1873, Med 2 Tayler og med Bilag ag wa ed e kerami a Bulle 
Academie Royale Danoise des Sciences et des Lettres. 8vo 0.1. Jan.-Mareb. E 

Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-philologischen und historischen Classe der k. b. Akademi 
der Wissenschaften a Benen. ore, sig. H, 1871. Heft iv-vi, 1872. Heft i-v, 1873. Hett 14 
Munche Wissens- 

Sitzungsberichte ~~ mathematische-physikalischen Classe der k. b. Akad e der hen. 
chaften 8vo, sig. 15, 1871. Heft iii, 1872. Heft 1-3. nee Ho i il. planed 

he Pre ES the Boston Society = Natural History. 8vo. Vol. xvi, Part ii. June, 

1874. Bost tom S 
Report on th irds of = — s. KN 
Bulletin of t tee y reM arere Po re ag i “College, Cambridge, Mas: Ps wo 

ogy i athing Mollusks of North America. ; 


Vol. iii, No.9. Catalogue z fe errestrial Air 
G. Binney. Cambridge, 1874. Lyman — 
cambitt No.10,7 plates. Ophiuride and Astrophytide, New and Old. By Theodore 
ge. ‘4. 
Lond ological Magazine. New Series, 8vo. Decade ii. Vol.i, Nos.2,3. Feb, and March, 187 
owe 
Proc: of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 8yo, pp, 9-74. 1874. 
Butietino the Buffalo Society vi Tarra eo f 8v0, Vol. i, No. 4. 1874. ronto, 1814 
eport of the EEEE Ment a y of the Province Af Ontario for 1813. 8vo. To! ; 
Btn ges cae itute f gina pl i 8vo, tom iii, Geneve, 1873. 
i n logique de ace 8vo, No. 97. S74, mh 
Berici er die Ver mdlungen der Koniglich Sachstachen Gesellschaft der Wissense senscha. 


s T arn arisch- Physische Classe, 8vo o 1873 inel. iy i Pwd ii. ah, a 
fi y nar the Fisheries of the PE ih Coast o Hons : 
With plates, 8. F. Baird. U.S. Commi oe Fishe ri ine easier Sa a 

= la Be ciete Malacologique yr crete vag ig Tome vi, vii, 187! 1872. With p! plates 
Tome fi, Brus 


~Verbaux des Seances de la Societe Malacologique de Belgique. 8¥0- 


gi Wyk a Tg P 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vol. VIII. —JULY, 1874.— No. 7. 
ece ORI DTD 


THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS 
COLEOPTERA.* 


BY JOHX L. LECONTE, M.D. 


Ar the meeting of the Academy held in Washington, Jan., 
1867, I had the honor to offer some remarks} upon the system- 
atic value of the great complex of Coleopterous insects known 
as Rhynchophora. 

It was my intention, as then stated, to follow the memoir just 
mentioned with another, in which the classification of the Rhyn- 
chophora and separation into families should be discussed, in the 
hope of developing a more satisfactory system of arrangement 
than had been thus far obtained. 

Circumstances have prevented me from following this par- 
ticular line of investigation to a definite result, until within a 
short time, though it has frequently occupied my attention for 
brief intervals. The time, however, has not been altogether 
lost, for I found that, with each return to the investigation, I 
obtained an additional, though small insight into the constitution 
of this complex, which has been the subject of repeated efforts 
by the most laborious and successful students of entomology in 
Europe. : i 
E T NAA a oc ek 


* Read before the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, April 21, 1874. 
t Am. Jour. Science and Arts, xliv, July, 1867- 
ee 


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF 
SCIENCE, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. ~ 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 25 (385) 


886 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 


The bases of the classification of the Rhynchophora which 
have been proposed are briefly these: 

I. Schonherr* treated the great mass of these insects (exclu- 
ding only the Scolytide), as constituting a single family, divi- 
ded as follows : — 


A. Antenne not geniculate; antennal grooves wanting; . ORTHOCERI. 
Bruchides, Anthribides, Camarotides, Attelabides, Rhinomacerides, 
Ithycerides, Apionides, Rhamphides, Brenthides, Cylades, Ulocer- 


ides 
B; ennæ geniculate; grooves almost always distinct; | GONATOCERI. 
ostrum short, deformed, antennez subterminal; 

Brachyrhynehi. 
* Antennal grooves extending below the eyes; Brachycerides, Enti- 

mides, Pachyrhynchides, Brachyderides, Cleonides, Molytides 
he (the last with the rostrum received in aprosternal pex 

v 


7 eraen 1 grooves directed towards the eye; 
ae ae Cyclomides, Otiorhynchides. 

b. ar — antennæ inserted far behind the tip: 
Erirhini des, Cholides, Cryptorhynchides, Cionides, Rhynch- 
ophorides, Condena, Cossonides, Dryophthorides. 

Mecorhynchi. 


In the gradual progress of the work this last legion, the Meco- 
rhynchi, were divided into Synmerides, having the front cox® 
contiguous, and Apostasimerides, having them distant. 

The distinctions between the tribes above mentioned were 
founded mostly on insignificant and evanescent modifications in 
the form of the beak and antennæ; so that with the immense 
mass of genera and species described, it became quite impossible 
to determine either from the work itself. 

II. Although the faults found with this artificial system wet 
neither few nor vaguely expressed, yet it was not until the prog” 
ress (1863) of his admirable work on the’Genera of Coleoptera 
by my deceased friend Prof. Lacordaire required this immense 
labor to be done over again, that any attempt was made at a new 
arrangement; the system of Lacordaire was essentially this: 

The series was divided into six families; Curculionide, Bruchi- 
dæ, Anthribide, Brenthide, Uloceride and Scolytide. Of thes? 
the Bruchide were recognized as having scarcely any relations 

nr 


* Genera et Species Curculionidum, Paris, 1833-1844. 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 387 


with the other families, and pertaining rather to the Chrysomel- 
idx, with which they have since been associated by most authors. 

The Bruchids and Anthribidee were characterized by having a 
distinct labrum; the Scolytidee by the compressed and dentate 
tibie, while the Brenthide were separated rather by form than 
by any distinct structural character. 

The Curculionids were then divided according to the size of 
the mentum, into 


I. Mentum closing the buccal space, and concealing the ante 


ADEL 
Eyes rounded, prothoracic lobes indistine Cyc lohan. 
Eyes large, depressed, eee ie pps below, prothoracic lobe 
well marked, OSRED as Chatha 
- Mentum smaller, pieni aunen eee Gs SS PAN RROGNATHI. 
A. Front coxæ contiguous or nearly so Synmerides. 


bod 
a 


- Pygidium covered by the elytra; anes hot appendiculate. 
TEE, short ; episterna narrow; 


inct: 
Metasternum long; episterna rather wide : 
Antennæ geniculate 
Antennæ straight. 
. Pygidium exposed, or claws abe ee as 
venta) segments Bat Sp ates t the sides 
ted: 


B. Front cox pesta by the prosternum, which is frequently 
channelled for the reception of the beak, Apostasimerides. 
a. ie organs normal. Club of antenné annulated; 3d 


Meiothomoic epimera Se ascending : 


ending. 
b. Oral wae pean 1st joint of antennal club usually 
very large, corneous, 3d joint of tarsi rarely bilobed. 
Pygidium expose 
Ri covered by elytra. 


Each of these divisions contains several tribes differentiated 
by etactors of smaller importance, and not unfrequently in- 
definite 


m ‘The’next attempt at a general classification was made by 
Mr. H. Jekel.* This excellent author recognized with great 
clearness, and defined with tolerable precision, the following eight 
raa RAS Rt ANG 


` 


` * Annales Ent. Soc. France, 1864, p. 537. Ins. Saundersiana, 155 sqq., 1860; 


888 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 


principal types among the Rhynchophora: Bruchides, Anthri- 
bides, Attelabides, Curculionides, Calandrides, Cossonides, Sco- 
lytides and Brenthides. The last cited memoir is occupied chiefly 
with a further development of the classification of the largest of 
these, the Curculionides proper, and in it he proceeds to separate 
as sub-families* Brachycerides, Byrsopides and Amycterides, 
epigeal forms in which the tarsi are not dilated, and not furnished 
with brush-like hairs beneath. Having thus isolated them the 
great mass remaining is divided into 
a ee inform ¢, = narrower in A. roe PLATYGNES. 
ea shag sex Acn S Homorhines. 
oo es éctes) deus a0 ce 
Body nearly or ok eof ai same fori > ag: 
gidium covered by the elytra, body pollinose or pubescent 
Is 


Pygidium ee or covered; body squamose, etc. METRIOGYNES. 
Pygidium covered . dia a ce : Cryptopyges- 
SY OMAO GEOR a be air end aban Gymnopyges- 


The principal types contained in each of these three grand 
divisions are then characterized in a very clear manner ; but for 
a proper understanding of this system, a vast improvement on 
all that preceded, the reader must refer to the original memoir. 
In developing the arrangement of the tribes represented in our 
fauna, I shall be largely indebted to the views expressed in this 
most valuable memoir of Mr. Jekel. 

There remain to be mentioned two faunal contributions to the 
history of this subject: 

1. A series of remarks by Mr. Suffrian,t in which the German 
species of several genera, not before carefully studied, are more 
fully elucidated, and various criticisms upon Schénherr’s system 
made.t The necessity of a more careful study of the tibie and 
tarsi, almost neglected by Schönherr is insisted on, and an arrang® 
ment s the German genera in groups upon these characters ÍS- 

* "2. That most admirable work of Prof ©. O. Tous 

"+ Mr. Jel Jekel gives to the sates groups this subordinate aoe on, ai with 


says “pour ne pas heurter les idées généralement proms ,” than uine 
his n alis, which would eer him to regard t sare Baye "done, as Ee 


Riisselkifer: Stettin, Ent. Zeitsch- i-ix. 


CiBaior 


t See spec! ially op. cit., 157. 
§ Skandinaviens eines vii, Lund, 1865. 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 389 


which no entomologist ever refers without finding original ma- 
terial by which he can profit; a remarkable instance of the good 
results to be obtained by a careful and intelligent study of a very 
limited fauna. The Rhynchophorous series is divided as follows : 
Segments of the abdomen immovable, 2d and 3d nearly equal 

IsOTOMA. 
Bruchide, Anthribide (including Urodon), Rhinomaceride, Atte- 
labidee 


Abdomen with the 1st and 2d segments connate, the remaining three 
movable, the 2d usually much longer than the . ANISOTOMA. 
Apionide, Curculionide, Cossonide (including Calandra), Tomicide. 


From a survey of the different schemes of arrangement which 
have been thus briefly reviewed, it is evident that while the prin- 
cipal types of the Rhynchophorous series, and the main divisions 
of the great family Curculionidæ have been clearly perceived, the 
attempts to define these important forms have failed in a greater 
or less degree, on account of the want of -proper subordination in 
the characters made use of: all of them natural, all of them im- 
portant, though in a less degree than supposed by the expounder 
of each particular system. 

To supplement the memoirs above referred to, there came in 
More recent times the beginning of a systematic study of our 
Species of Curcylionidæ by Dr. George H. Horn, a careful and con- 
Scientious study of the Calandride and Cossonidæ and of some 
Mecorhynch genera of the United States.* In the introductory 
remarks he observes :— : 

‘One character is mentioned in the following pages that ap- 
pears to have escaped notice. In most if not all of the genera of 
Mecorhynques, the males have eight and the females seven dorsal 
abdominal segments. The Calandrides and Cossonides appear not 
_ to possess this character, as also all the Brachyrhynques which I 
have had time to examine.” 

The value of this original observation of Dr. Horn is very great, 
but the limitation which he has placed upon it, though correct as 
: Tegards the Calandride and Cossonide types, is erroneous as regards 
the Brachyrhynes, which have the abdominal sexual characters 
Precisely as in the genera in which he first observed them. So too 
have the Brenthidæ, and all the anomalous sub-families of Curculi- 


í * Contributions to a Knowledge of the Curculionidæ of the United States. Proc. 
m. Philosophical Soc. 1873, 407. 


390 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 


onidz in the Jekelian system. It appears therefore that this pe- 
culiarity of structure is of much more importance than was 
supposed by Dr. Horn, and that it must in reality be the defining 
character for the division of the Rhynchophora into primary series, - 
of more than family value. I therefore prepared a series of dis- 
sections of each of the well recognized Rhynchophorous types within 
my reach, and have come to the conclusion that they may be ar- 
ranged in three sets, each of which has a corresponding value to 
the individual series of normal Coleoptera (e.g. Adephaga, Clavi- 
cornia, Lamellicornia, etc.) ; and upon subordinate characters 
(some of which have been already employed in the classifications 
above mentioned, though in an empirical manner) into families a8 
follows. i ! 
SERIES 1. HAPLOGASTRA. 

Abdomen alike in both sexes; dorsal segments 7, coriaceous, 
with the exception of the 7th which forms the pygidium, and 
which is small and corneous ; ventral segments not prolonged up- 
wards into a sharp edge; elytra without lateral fold on the inner 
surface, epipleure usually distinct, antenns straight, 11-jointed. 

ngues usually bifid or toothed, rarely (Rhinomacer) simple; 
Front cox conical, prominent, prosternum very short in front of 
the coxe. The beak varies in length and thickness, but not ac 
cording to sex, so far as I know: the front cox are contiguous, 
except in one genus of Rhynchitide (Pterocolus); the ventral 
sutures of the abdomen are straight. The mandibles and a 
vary in form, and furnish convenient characters for division into 
families :— 


A. Ventral segments nearly equal in length; epipleural indistinct; er 
spurs small; claws simple (always ?). Mandibles simple, flat; 18 
ee 

B. Ventral segments diminishing in length; epipleure distinct; 14 
wanting; claws bifid, or appendiculate 

Mandibles flat, toothed on each side; tibial spurs small 
RHYNCHITDÆ. 
Mandibles stout, pincer shaped, tibial spurs large ATTELABIDE: 


The affinities of this series are in an ascending direction with 
the rostrated Heteromera (Oedemeride and Pythidæ) ; this et 
dicated by the softer tissues in Rhinomaceridæ, and certain Boy 
chitidæ, and also by the presence of a labrum in the forme a 
a descending direction the Attelabide lead to the true Curculionid®, - 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 391 


and the Rhynchitidæ to the Belidæ, the last ES in the third 
series of Rhynchophora. 

The habits of the species of this series are peculiar, and quite 
different from those of the next series, and indicate as is wisely 
observed by Lacordaire,* for the care of their progeny, an industry 
which appears here for the first time in the family. I cannot de- 
scribe the results of this instinctive or intelligent industry better 
than by condensing the account of the author just cited, referable 
however to European species. 

1. Rhinomaceridæ. The European species deposits the eggs 
in the male flowers of Pinus maritimus, the development of which 
is thus prevented. I may be allowed to observe that this synthetic 
genus, the nearest approach in the Rhynchophora to the lower 
Heteromera, and therefore the representative of old mona clings 
to an old and synthetic type of vegetation. 

2. Rhynchitidæ. Some of the species of Rhynchites roll leaves 
inthe manner of the next family. Others deposit their eggs in 
young fruit, the kernel of which is eaten by the larva; others again 
place the eggs in the undeveloped buds of trees, which are thus 
destroyed. 

3. Attelabide. In the spring the females roll up the leaves of 
trees, and deposit in each an egg. After emerging from the egg 
the young larvæ eat the inside layer of the case which covers them, 
which they probably leave at a later period, when their growth is 
complete, to perfect their metamorphosis under ground. 

These three families are of small extent, and oe little need be 
Said regarding their classification. 


RHINOMACERID#. 

This family is represented in our fauna by two species, one on 
each slope of the continent, and is easily recognized by the de- 
pressed, curved and acute mandibles, and distinct labrum. The 
Pygidium is covered by the elytra, which are punctured without 
any appearance of striæ. On the inner face there is no trace of 
a lateral fold: the epipleure are indistinct. 


ATTELABID&. 


Four species of Attelabus on the Atlantic slope are the only 
representatives thus far known in our fauna. The beak is stouter 
int 


*Gen. Col. vi, 543. 


892 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 


than in the preceding family, and the mandibles thicker and 
stronger. The epipleurz are quite distinct, and there is no trace 
of a lateral fold on the inner face of the elytra. The pygidium 
is not covered by the elytra, and is impressed along its upper 
margin for the reception of the apical edge of the elytra.* The 
tibiæ are armed with large spurs. 


RHYNCHITID&. 

The peculiar form of the mandibles requires the separation of 
these genera as a distinct family. The teeth on the inner side are 
well developed as usual, but in addition, the apex is prolonged out- 
wards into an acute process, behind which is another large tooth. t 

The front cox are usually contiguous, large and conical, in one 
genus (Pterocolus) widely separated. The pygidium is either ex- 
posed (Rhynchites, Pterocolus) or covered by the elytra (Eugnamp- 
tus, Auletes). The epipleure are narrow, but distinct, and on the 
inner face of the elytra remote from the margin may be seen 4 
short straight fold, the homologue of the well defined fold which 
limits the lateral groove for the reception of the side margin of the 
ventral segments observed in all the following families. 


Serres II. ALLOGASTRA. 

Abdomen dissimilar in the two sexes; dorsal segments 1-6 
coriaceous or membranous, 7th large, corneous, undivided in @> 
divided into two in ĝ ; ventral segments prolonged upwards 
forming a sharp edge, fitting into a corresponding groove on the 
inner face of the elytra, which are without epipleure. 

The beak and oral organs vary greatly in form, as do also the 
antenne, the tarsi, the ungues, and the position of the cox ; the 
lst and 2d ventral segments are most frequently connate, and the 
3d is always shorter than the 2d; the 5th is longer than the ben’ 

The following families seem to be indicated by the material I 
have examined :— 


A. Antenne with a solid annulated club: 
rrow : 


Gular margin very prominent; mentum retracted ; 


of 
* Compare in this relation the curious notch in the front part of the your 
An dæ, for th ption of th tural angles of the elytra. i vi, 9) 
ł This character was first observed by Thomson, who observes (Sk. Col. pa x“ 
f hitina, “mandibulæ d p j t excise, intus denta 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 393 


Prosternum not excavated; . . .. < AMYCTERIDZ. 

Prosternum excavated: . . +. e + « YRSOPID 
Gular margin not prominent, mentum large, concealing the 
mandibles, which are not scarred at tip BRACHYCERID Z. 

b. Tarsi dilated, usually with a brush of hair beneath: 

Mandibles with deciduous tip, leavinga scar OTIORHYNCHID#. 
Mandibles simple, usually pincer-shaped. . CURCULIONID. 
B. Antenne with 11 separate joints. . = ‘ BRENTHIDZ 


Concerning Amycteride and Brachyceride, but little need be 
said. They are very peculiar and easily recognized forms, not 
represented in our fauna. 

The first is Australian; the antenne are slender, and genicu- 
lated ; the beak short and stout, deeply emarginate at tip, alike in 
both sexes ; the buccal opening is very large, and the cavity is filled 
almost completely by the mandibles, which are convex, hairy on the 
greater part of the front surface, deflexed, deeply concave beneath ; 
the gular margin is thickened and prominent, so that a deep cavity 
is seen between the gula and the mandibles, in which the mentum 
and oral organs are concealed from view; the eyes are small and 
nearly round in some, narrowed beneath in others. The front 
Coxe are contiguous, the prosternum very short; the elytra are 
connate and extend far over the flanks, so that the side pieces both 
of the meso- and metathorax are concealed. The dorsal segments 
of the abdomen are membranous, except the last which is very 
large, corneous, and convex, more so in ĝ than in 9, in the former 
itis truncate behind, exposing a semicircular 8th segment, from 
under which protrudes (Psalidura) a very powerful and complex 
genital armature, consisting of a large pair of forceps, conical ob- 
tuse, punctured and hairy, under which and seen only from below 
is a pair of transverse, thin, polished, corneous plates, also meeting 
on the median line ; between them and the forceps is a large deep 
cavity. The ventral segments are scarcely less singular; the 1st 
and 2d segments large, flat, connate, united by a sinuate suture ; 
3d and 4th very short, separated by deeply excavated straight 
sutures, 5th much larger, in ĝ very deeply and semicircularly ex- 
Cavated, almost to the base, with a tuft of stiff bristles each side 
at the front edge of the excavation ; in the @ this segment is flat, 
and meets the last dorsal at tip in the usual manner; on the sides 
the lateral upward extension of the 5th ventral is very large, but 
the spiracle is visible; the extension of the 4th and 3d segments 


894 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 


are much smaller, and imbricated upon the 5th and 4th respec- 
tively ; the side margin of the 1st and 2d is very narrow, and the 
side pieces of the metasternum are scarcely visible. The elytra 
are connate, with the lateral groove of the inner face narrow and 
sharply defined, becoming broader and indefinite at the posterior 
fourth ; on the inner face are seen eight rows of punctures, cor- 
responding to ridges of tubercles on the back. The tarsi are 
4-jointed, narrow, or at least the 3d joint not wider than the 
others, deeply grooved beneath; the tibiz are truncate, without 
spurs, the front pair a little incurved at tip in both sexes. Claws 
simple, not contiguous. 

The genera of this family are stated by Mr. Jekel,* to differ by 
the form of the eyes, some being Cyclophthalmes, others Oxyoph- 
thalmes ; also in the antennal grooves, some being Obliquiscrobes, 
others Lateriscrobes. The vestiture of the under surface of the 
tarsi varies in different genera; in Psalidura they are spongy seri- 
ceous beneath, in others ciliate or spinous. : 

In other genera, the sexual characters are less remarkable than 
in Psalidura, and will be found to consist chiefly in the division 
of the last dorsal segment into two, as in the other families of the 
series. 

The Brachyceridz are restricted to Africa and the neighboring 
parts of Europe and Asia. They are stout insects, with ventri- 
cose elytra, suddenly deflexed behind, and extending far upon the 
flanks, like the first tribes of Tenebrionids, which they also rè- 
semble in the large mentum, flat, filling the whole of the buccal 
cavity. The beak is short and stout, thicker at the extremity, 
alike in both sexes; the antennal grooves are wanting (Episus) ; 
or deep and directed downwards, almost confluent in the gular es 
gion (Brachycerus, Microcerus). The antenne are short, straight 
or feebly geniculate, scape forming less than } the length; joints 
of the funiculus 7, rather short, club solid, obconical, truncate 
or subacuminate at tip. Eyes rounded or transverse and acumr 
nate at the lower end. Mandibles stout, short, more prominent 
in Brachycerus, where they have the lower margin more produced 
into a cutting edge: the front surface is rough and somewhat a0- 
gular, but without any trace of the rounded scar seen in Otiorhyn- : 
chide. The scutellum is scarcely visible; the elytra, aS above 
mentioned, are ventricose, irregularly tuberculate or costate, YOT i 
OO EEE Aen, Kat: Bos, Branco 3004, MA. 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 9395 


much extended on the flanks, so as to cover the side pieces of the 
meso- and metathorax; greatly deflexed behind. The lateral 
groove of the inner face is deep and narrow, becoming wider and 
obsolete behind. The dorsal segments are membranous, except 
the last, which is corneous, and divided in ĝ into two as in Cur- 
culionidæ. The ventral segments are separated by deep sutures, 
of which the Ist is sinuate; the 3d and 4th segments are shorter 
than the others: the lateral extension upwards is narrow; and 
but slightly wider behind. The front coxe are contiguous, prom- 


nent and subconical, the tibiz are not dilated, the spurs are small, 


fixed, projecting inwards, the tarsi 4—jointed, narrow, setose and 
eebly concave beneath (Brachycerus) ; pubescent, concave and 
emarginate beneath (Microcerus) ; claws large, simple, distant. 


BYRSOPIDZ. 


The third of the anomalous families has a more general distri- 


_ bution, and is represented in our fauna by the genus Thecesternus, 


which forms a separate tribe, distinguished from the other tribes 
by the prosternal groove for the reception of the beak not ex- 
tended as far as the front coxe. 

These insects are epigeal, rough and dull colored, with the elytra 
widely embracing the flanks, but not strongly deflexed behind, 
concealing the side pieces of the trunk. The beak is very short, 
not thickened at tip, nor emarginate at the middle; the antennal 
grooves descend perpendicularly and form a gular constriction: 
the antennz are unusually short, imperfectly geniculate, the scape 
as long as the 1st and 2d joints of the funiculus; the club elon- 
gate oval, pointed, distinctly annulated. Eyes transverse, pointed 
beneath.* Mandibles stout, short, front surface curved and 
roughly punctured; mentum very small, not placed on a gular 

uncle; maxillæ exposed. Prothorax widely lobed in front at 
the sides, so as to conceal the eyes, when the head is deflexed ; 
deeply excavated beneath for the reception of the beak, cavity 
closed behind in Thecesternus by a triangular plate of the pro- 
sternum, but by the front cox in the other genera; coxe sinall, 
globose, contiguous. Elytra+ connate, widely extended on the 
flanks, declivous behind, rough; lateral groove of inner face 
e een ra eee dimes 

* Jekel, 1. c. 1864, 543, describes the group as being Adelognathes cyclophthalmes : La- 

ire (Gen. Col. vi, 293 sqq.) places them in Phanerognathes, and describes the 


eyes as ae 


3896 . OBSERVATIONS ON DROSERA FILIFORMIS. 


narrow, and well defined ; scutellum not visible; humeri in The- 
cesternus prolonged forwards, so as to extend along the sides of 
the prothorax. Dorsal segments membranous, last one large, 
corneous, divided into two in g: ventral segments unequal, Ist 
and 2d very large, more closely connected, suture arcuated: 3d 
and 4th short, sutures deep, 5th as long as the two preceding; 
lateral extension moderately wide, wider behind, pygidium artic- 
ulating with both 4th and 5th ventrals. Legs slender, tibiæ trun- 
cate, spurs small, tarsi 4—jointed, narrow, setose beneath. 


Several species of Thecesternus are found in the interior regions, 


of the continent, from Illinois to Utah, under dried buffalo exere- 
ment, and similar objects.— To be concluded. 


OBSERVATIONS ON DROSERA FILIFORMIS. 


BY WM. M. CANBY. 


Some observations on the power of the insect-trapping “ thread 
leaved sundew” to bend its leaves partly or wholly about its prey, 
may serve to supplement the interesting notes of Mrs. Mary 
recorded in the December number of the AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
They were made about the middle of last August during 4 day’s 
botanical excursion in the vicinity of “Pleasant Mills,” New 
Jersey, and were suggested by Mr. Darwin in the following mem- 
oranda: 


(1.) “Put a small atom of crushed fly on a leaf of Drosera 


filiformis near the apex and observe whether the solid leaf itself, 
after twenty-four hours or so, curls over the fly.” 

(2.) “ Rub roughly with the point of a fine needle half a dozen 
times a few glands, and observe whether they become infl 
after a few minutes, or more probably after a few hours.” 

The place selected for the experiments was the edge of a a 
berry meadow exposed during the whole day to the sun, and ye 
protected by higher ground and trees from the wind, which other- 


entangling the leaves together. Hundreds of the plants eer 
here growing, most of their leaves being fully extended, * 
others were yet unfolding from their circinate vernation. 


Zhe a aeons on EE A i ae 
ROPER EE AINE ae ep) oa) eee ee ee apne nai Ls) | er Bese 


OBSERVATIONS ON DROSERA FILIFORMIS. 397 


A.M. bits of the common house fly were placed near the apices of 
a number of leaves, and these were carefully marked in order to 
distinguish them from the great number of those which had al- 
ready captured insects or might during the day make a prey of 
others. They were not visited again until about 7 r.m., the exi- 
gencies of botanical collecting taking my companion and myself 
several miles away. At another place, however, I had an oppor- 
tunity to corroborate Mrs. Treat’s remark upon the power of the 
leaves to make prisoners of large flies; for I witnessed the cap- 
ture of a large and strong dipter,—a desperate struggle ensuing 
which resulted in the prey being permanently held. 

On returning in the evening it was found that in the twelve 
hours which had elapsed, not only, had the glandular hairs around 
bent towards and touched the atoms of fly, but that also in every 
case the leaves themselves had bent over them. My sketches, 
made by laying the leaves upon paper and thus getting their exact 
outline, show a remarkable uniformity in the amount of inflection ; 
it being in each case between 15° and 20°, mostly about 17°. 
These experiments were further corroborated by observations 
upon the leaves around, many of which were much more bent, 
‘undoubtedly from having held the prey a longer time. In one 
case indeed, where the capture had evidently been made near the 
tip of a fully unrolled leaf, it had again curled round the prey so 
as completely to encircle it. 

So far as the limited time available permitted the observation, 
I could not perceive that it made much difference in the amount 
of inflection, upon what part of the circumference of the leaf the 
prey was taken. But if anything the back or outer side was less 
Sensitive. 

As regards the irritation of the glands with a needle the results 
Were entirely negative both in the morning and evening, though it 
IS possible some sensitiveness might have been shown if the ex- 

_ periment had been tried during the noonday heat. 

x The meagre notes of a traveller made during a single day’s 
observation are of course neither so full nor reliable as might be 
~ Obtained by one living on the spot and with time at command. I 
__ believe further and accurate observations of the habits and func- 
tions of this very curious plant would be well repaid by the inter- 
esting results obtained. 


A KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGZ OF THE ATLANTIC 
7 COAST, BETWEEN NEWFOUNDLAND 
AND FLORIDA. 


BY PROF. D. 8. JORDAN. 


Is the preparation of this Key, the principal work of which use 
has been made is Prof. W. H. Harvey’s Nereis Boreali-Amer- 
icana. The characters of; the higher groups have been to a great 
extent copied or abridged from that work, and Harvey’s Nomen- 
clature and arrangement of families have been generally followed. 
In several instances, doubtful species have been suppressed or 


mitted. 

Although the number of species recognized by Harvey is much 
less than has been admitted by previous writers, a still further 
reduction would be an advantage. Perhaps one-sixth of the 
species described in the Nereis might with propriety be consid- 
ered as varieties. ; j 

The author has tried to render the Key as simple, compact and 
easy of comprehension as possible. Obvious characters, Wa% 
ever available, have been used in preference to technical ones, 
as the structures on which the classification is really based are 
microscopic and often hard to ascertain. 

Special technical terms are generally avoided, and those not . 
used in Gray’s “Manual of Botany” are defined where they , 
occur. 

Among plants so little known and which vary 8° widely 8 
the Algæ, a synoptical table by which any specimen in any oe 
dition may be identified, is, of course, impossible, but it is hoped | 
that this Key is sufficiently plain. and accurate that nine sper 
mens in every ten may be readily classified by its aid. ; 


Sus-Ciass I. MELANOSPERMEZ. 
(OLIVE-GREEN ALGZ). 


Plants olive-green or olive-brown, never showing tints of re - 
Fructification monecious or diœcious. Spores olive-colore’y 


either external or contained singly or in groups in prope concer 
(898) : 


i 


KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGÆ OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 399 


tacles; each spore enveloped in a pellucid skin, simple or finally 
separating into two, four or eight sporules. Antheridia, or 
transparent cells filled with orange-colored, vivacious corpuscles, 
moving by means of vibratile cilia. 


Marine, often of large size, mostly between tide marks, A 
A. FROND LEATHERY OR MEMBRANACEOUS, FORMING A COM- 
PACT URLLULAN BUBSTANOR, o o a roura e 


A. FROND OF JOINTED FILAMENTS WHICH ARE EITHER FREE OR 
UNITED IN A COMPOUND BODY, ee E E R L ob Ar Ve 


B. Spores in spherical cavities in the frond; air vessels com- 
monly present ; large, tough plants, . FUCACEA. D 


B. Spores in indefinite cloud-like patches on the surface 
of the frond, which is usually large and stipitate, 
sometimes deeply divided, but never truly branched, 

LAMINARIACEÆ. 


rej 


B. Spores attached to external jointed filaments; ours, slen- 
er deep water species becoming blackish-green in 
drying, cied e a BPOROCHNACR Æ: B 


B. Spores < definite groups (sori) on the surface of the 
frond; fronds smallish, juiceless, the surface netted 
with e cella, o 03,2 6) ¢ DIOTYOTACEA: H 


C. Spores immersed ; fronds not jointed, except in a few small 
parasites in which the filaments are connected at 
baa LS Ce ., > CHORDA RIACE E. 


Pi 


C. Spores external >; fronds either obviously jointed or else sur- 
rounded by whorled branchlets, ECTOCARPACEÆ. 


D. Frond leafy; air vessels stalked separate Sargassum. 

D. Frond leaf-like belo ow; air vessels in EEES branchlets, pod-like, 

several celled, Halidrys. 

D. Fron mx seams’ i receptacles filled with mucous; nit vessels, x 
Fucu 


nt, no 

E. Hoi seder, ri wink of delicate Hanpi at the stray 
Arthocladia. 

E. Frond pinnate, solid, . Caters ee ea. ~ Desmarestia. 

F. Frond f flat, With a mddvein. r E a ewe wg 

F. Frond flat, without a midvein, . . -- +--+ + + Laminaria. 


NK i som 


400 KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGH OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 
F. Frond cylindrical, septate within oe ee 2 Oe 
G. Frond pierced with large fona tah holes, e o + + + = Agarum da 
G. Frond not pierced with holes, . . én 0) 8 ce oe A 
H. Frond wen ching, Pee SS ee a 
H. Frond simple, ae eae Oe 
I. Frond = Se ati a „e » Pundan ae 
I. Frond bag-like, or worm- like, jot Sonstricted, hes ible k 
J. Dichotomous, with wide axils, ilophora. f 
J. Stem mostly excurrent with many ae EL à a g 
J. Frond tubular; branches opposite, tapering to each end, Striaria. h 
K. Frond Seltadtical, branching, L 
K. apa or minute parasites p ERSEN of densely tufted filaments 

at base, free above, . . ed - +H 
K. Frond niekol irregular, Ia athesiā. n 
i 


sew herds eoa ery, meets of E D unbranched 
ong, slender speci dart 


Y. Frond cylindrical; branches opposite. . re 
Y. prn reperta alternate, either with tufts of brit green 


i 
L. Axis atin us, lax; A Aiamaöti race Ma m 
M. Tufts on Fucus; 4 to 1 inch high, . Elachista. 0 
M. Forming minute brown patches on Give: whe See: mene? p 
N. Frond rigid; each joint of pwei T e F. oo o 
N. Frond soft; each joint of a single ce P 
O. Stems not obviously jointed; ea whorled, " Cladostephus. q 
O. Whole frond articulate ; sety branched, . . Sphacelaria. T 
P. Frond capillary, much branched, . Ectocarpus. 8 
P. Frond simple, with pT of small branchlets, ‘ win pee 
Q. Air vessels tipped with filiform points. . ~ we 
Q. Air vessels nearly or quite pointless i ey 
R. Leaves glandular; air vessels not longer than their z pedicels . : : 
R. Leaves nearly glandless; pedicels very s ? 2 
8.. Leaves narrow, repand or sub-entire. . . . +--+ +++" * go 
S. Leaves broader, sharply serrate. . ow le 5 : 
T. Frond compressed, repeatedly anato. E ee ee v ; 
U. Frond flat, with a midrib a a E e ‘oe. 6 . 
U. Frond compressed, withou idrib. ee. Bi: 
V. Air vessels usually present; coarse species more common than 1 
V. No air vessels; frond dertate, Pe Ne eee ne eee es : 
V. No air vessels; margins entire. oy we $ 8 
W. Receptacles obtuse; nort ae + ae 9 
W. Receptacles acute; river mouths, etc Pa hee . ‘ ? u 
Young stems villous; deep water; rare. ‘ : * ee “2 
13 


or subulate spines, T 
Z. Piti reseb or cleft only at sek: ole: Oe 
Z. Frond finally deeply cleft. in 


a. Stipe very long, hollow, largest midwais ‘tea water. Pe 


KEY TO THE HIGHER ALG OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 


a short, cylindrical, solid; margin of frond wavy or rufiled; 
ery lar, 


re. . ; í $ ‘ 


Tufts spines tik densely i interwoven.’ eo ee a. 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. 26 


401 


a, Pine flat, winged; trong ay Tigh ow. 1 
a. Stipe short, flattened; much smaller ne more cliente ena the 
preceding huge “‘ oar-weeds ” and “ 18 
b. Stipe nearly round, 1 to 6 feet ee © COMMON: 4 i A 15 
b. ipe flat, 3 to 4 inches long; rare é meshes tak T 
c. Frond pinnatifid us with veiness teaflela. Pee es aaa 
d. Rocks, etc., below low tide; nN. PRAE eee eae 
e. Frond Goustricted a ee: i ne 2 feet onde go eee Oe Vga 
©; Frond not constricted, 1 to 40 feetlong. . . . ......22 
f. Adhering strongly to paper; oS . 24 
g. On s, Fucus, Chordaria, etc.; c o: : ib ele rane 5° 
h. Fruit— groups of spores in transverse lines. . . » .. . - 26 
i, Frond tapering each way; 1to4lines wide. e ..... . 27 
i. Frond an inch or more wide. . mre Shae 
$ Dark green; attenuate te bape. o SO ee oe 
j. Pale; abruptly tapering to bas Se neers evn ee 
k. Fruit — minute, scattered dot- like sori. . Vier Races rae E 
l. Frond with long, filiform, sub-simple biek E a l 
l. Irregularly, mostly dichotomously branched. . . . . . . + 32 
m. Slender, with a few short ip Ol LORT ikke a ee OO 
m. Clumsy with long worm-like Mea eer ira aa 
m, Filiform; branches long; dint sts asw ide. 
n. On Cor graiia, etc.; tuber size of a walnut. or rei becoming 
finally hollow . 36 
0. Brown pencil- like tufts on oa common ee hae rr trey | 
P. Several species probably here; the common . . 38 
q. Branches slender; branchlets forked, sage se Wisi: EN SO 
q. Coarser, branchlets simple, irregularly whorled. . . . . . . 40 
T. In globose tufts on small Algæ. . . > eow sick Ae 
r. In ee patches on rocks ag BbnOs Gon eee ee are eae 
‘8. es mostly "o erie obte A Os a e 
8. Canepa mostly altern u 
t, Propagula (pod-like bodies ETIE as ake PEA P A TE which 
are formed by partial or entire transformation of a branch 
elliptical, sessile. fates ae 
t. Propagula forming swenmgs m the — biaha” ee ae 
u. Joints of stem decidedly longer than broad. . .- ++ +++ W 
u. Joints of stem not longer than broad. v 
V. Zigzag, much forked; small spine-like S at nearly etery 
joint. . 51 
V. Stem ex current;  propagite ‘elliptical; branche e a kp 
ve rr elongated; our commonest - 44 
+ Lropagula linear, tipped with aan eat a the dinno 
branchle - 45 
Ww. 


402 KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGZ OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 


w. Branches py short, tht horizontal, espa branchlets. 52 
w. Notas above; long, loose and feathery. . 
x. On Chorda, po ae OR a Stem Sekliows.: eke Boe | 53 


LIST OF SPECIES. 


In the following list the distribution of each plant is given, as 
far as known. The figures refer to the average height of the 
plant in inches. 

1, SARGASSUM* VULGARE Agardh (Sea-Lenfils). Cape Cod ome PR 12-36. 

2. SARGASSUM MONTAGNEI Bailey. Rhode Island and Sout 

3. SARGASSUM BACCIFERUM Agardh. (Sea-grapes, Gu ulfaeed.) "oat Stream. 12-40. 
4 12-2 


R ; 
HALIDRYS SILICULOSA gby. Newfoundland. 10-0, 
. Fucus on Lin nnæus. ea vaig a North. 


orie 
10. FUCUS SERRATUS Linnæus. ea abe sist Forth 24-40, 
11. ARTHOCLADIA VILLOSA Duby. North Carolina 

2. DESM. STIA VIRIDIS ppe New York Epea North. 12-36. 


13. DESMARESTIA ACULEATA Lam x. New Jersey and North. 12-80. 
14. LAMINARIA SAOUHARINA Lamoronx. ( Venus’ Girdle.) Cape May rape N. 12-120. 
15. LAMINARIA DIGITATA I weed). Long Island and North. 40-144. 


16. LAMINARIA LOREA Bory. Newfoundland. 24-60. 
17. LAMINARIA LONGICRURIS De la Pylaie. peels iene a North. 60-100. 
Nort) 


22. CHORDA FILUM pre oan inny’s Lines). Cape May and North. 1 
23. CHORDA a ee abies rsa and North. 

24, STILOPHORA Agardh. New Jersey and North. 4-5. 

25. Diorrostrnox ra ræsIcVLACEUSI Greville. New Jersey and North. 6-24 
26. STRIARIA -A ATA Greville. New York. 2-3. 


29. PUNCT. 

30. ASPEROCOCCUS Grevill Diisel, 5-24. 

g CHORDARIA FLAGELLIFORMIS Agardh. New Jersey and North. 12-24. 
32. CHORDARIA DIVARICATA tag ta Long Island and North, 12-30. 

33. MESOGLOIA VERMICULARIS Agardh. Halifax. 12-18 


*More than 120 species of Sargassum have been described, many of ger? ae 
foes teas shed by indefinite or inconstant characters. Prof. Agassiz, who x i 
I , expressed his decided opinion that our eight 
“species” were merely fo forms z n. abe one and the same | 


Specimens with blended characters of Nos. I and 2 
tIn the AMERICAN arire api ye August, 1873, 
mine ofa specimen o! of Dicry ULACEUS grow 


either in observation or in identification, ee ‘would "a as pis 
long ago by Areschoug, that Dictyosiphon is merely an abnormal st: 
fagelliformis. 


CANNIBALISM IN AMERICA, Í 403 


. MESOGLOIA Cc ichael a te and South. 2-12. 
MESOGLOIA ZOSTER Areschoug. Halifi 

6. LEATHESIA TUBERIFORMIS Gray. Whole pile st. “an 

. ELACHISTA a es. Whole Coast. 1 or less. 

. MYRIONEMA ULANS Greville. Coast. One-tenth. 

le aan s sce ped Agardh. Long Island and North. 3-8. 
. CLADOSTEPHUS SPONGIOSUS Agardh. Long Island and North. 2 

41, SPHACELARIA CIRRHOSA Agardh. bole York and North. 1-2. 


BZ4YeHRe 


~ 
8g 


& 
& 
Q 
S 
aa 
= 
oo 
jsi 
D 
a 
i] 


achuset 
TOA tad North. 2-4. 
6-12. 


ECTOCARPUS LITTORALIS Lyngby. Virginia = r 
. ECTOCARPUS SILICULOSUS Lyngby. bids ole Pon 3-6. 

46. ECTOCARPUS TOMENTOSUS Lyngby tt d North. 2-6. 
47. ECTOCARPUS FASCICULATUS Harvey. w Jersey to Massachusetts. 3-6. 
48. ECTOCARPUS GRANULOSUS Agardh. Massachusetts 4-8. 
49. ECTOCARPUS DURKEEI Aga New Ham —. 2 
50. Ecrocarpus MITCHELL y iraa tadkel 2 
51. ECTOCARPUS LANDSBURGI a ova Scotia. 1-2. 
52. Ecrocarpus HOOPERI Harvey. New York(?). 3-8 
53. MYRIOTRICHIA FILIFORMIS Griffiths. Maine. 1-2. 


HUMAN REMAINS IN THE SHELL HEAPS OF THE 
T. JOHN’S RIVER, EAST FLORI 
CANNIBALISM.* 


BY PROF. J. WYMAN. 


AFTER repeated-examinations of the more important shell heaps 
on the St. John’s, we have failed to find any evidence that they 
were used for the burial of the dead, or for any other purpose 
than dwelling places. Human bones have, however, been dis- 
covered in them, from time to time, under peculiar circumstances, 
and as their presence opens a question of much interest, it will be 
desirable to describe in detail each of the instances in which they 
have been detected, especially where the bones have been found 
in considerable numbers. 

1. The first which came under the notice of the writer, was at Old 
Enterprise, on Lake Monroe, in 1861, a few rods above the high 
bluff and near the shore of the lake. The deposit of shells where 

bones were found is about four feet thick, and has been 
much washed away by the waves during the great storms. While 
making an excavation near the roots of a large palmetto tree 
a 


permitted to print this paper in advance from the “Sixth Annual Report 
of the Peata Museum of Anthropology,” now in press.—EDs. 


404 CANNIBALISM IN AMERICA. 


which had been partially uncovered by the action of the water, 
human bones were found about two feet below the surface. A 
foot above them, where a fire had been made, were ashes and 
large pieces of oak charcoal. The bones were not burned, how- 
ever, and did not appear to have been connected with the fire in 
any way. They were broken into pieces a few inches long, just as 
was the case with the bones of the deer from the same deposit, or 
from the adjoining bluff, and like them had lost their organic 
matter, were incrusted with lime, and had become cemented to- 
gether, so as in all respects to have the appearance of the same 
age as the bones of the animals associated with them. 

The fragments consisted of the head of a femur broken off just be- 
low the lesser trochanter, two fragments of the shaft of this bone, 
one fragment each of the shaft of the tibia, fibula and humerus, 4 
part of a scapula, including the glenoid portion, two metatarsal 
bones, and one phalanx of a thumb. It is quite probable that 
there were originally a larger number of pieces and that many 
had been carried away by the action of the water in its encroach- 
ments on the shore. 

Two important and more complete discoveries were made in the 
neighborhood of Blue Spring, though the localities were somewhat 
over two miles apart. 

2. One of these was on the left bank of the creek through 
which the spring discharges, and about thirty feet from its union 
with the river. The bones were found about two feet below the 
surface, embedded in the shells, and represented a large part of 
the bones of the skeleton. They were nearly all more or, less | 
broken, and were scattered about without any definite ordet: 
Many fragments of the skull, however, were found -near together.. 
Besides the pieces of the cranium, there were fragments of the 
following bones: viz., the lower jaw, right and left clavicle, right 
humerus, right and left scapula, ulna of both sides, right radius, 
right and left femur, right tibia, the two patellæ, upper end of t 
sternum, one fragment of pelvis, many fragments of ribs and Bo 
few bones of hands and feet. The humerus, radius and tibia of 
the left side were not found. ae 
__ 8. The other collection is from a low oval mound, in the swamp 
or meadow, two miles in a northerly direction from Blue Springe 
Here, again, portions of many parts of the skeleton were p = 
Notwithstanding careful search beyond the limits where the bony : 


CANNIBALISM IN AMERICA. 405 


were discovered, not a single piece of the head was found. Of 
eleven vertebrze found, all except one (the fifth lumbar) had their 
arches detached, as if for removing the spinal cord. The right 
innominate bone was broken into four pieces ; of the left only one 
large, including the acetabulum, and a few small pieces remained. 
The right femur was broken into three and the left into five 
pieces ; the left radius and left ulna each into three pieces, the 
left humerus into two, and the head of it was missing. All t 
bones of the right arm and right leg below the knee were missing. 
There were many fragments of ribs. The different pieces were 
scattered about over a surface of four or five square yards and 
promiscuously mingled. The bones had not been previously dis- 
turbed. 

Near these remains were found some fragments of a large 
earthen vessel, apparently capable of holding several gallons, and 
varying from a half to three-quarters of an inch in thickness. 
The bones had lost all their organic matter, and when struck 
against each other have a decided ring. 

4. A small collection of human bones was found in a shell field 
a few hundred feet south of the mouth of the creek at Blue 
Spring, and near the river. They consisted of fragments of the 
humerus, tibia, lower jaw, scapula and ulna, broken in the same 
manner as those just described, and also bones of the hands and 
feet. As the field in which they were discovered had been 
ploughed, it is unéertain to what extent the breaking of them may 
have been accidental. The appearances were the same as in the 
bones already described. There were no signs of a burial place. 

5. Many fragments of an imperfect human skeleton were found 
in the mound on Huntoon Island, and near Huntoon creek. ey 
were covered with shells to the depth of eighteen inches, and 
though the place was completely explored, only the following were 
discovered ; ; viz., fragments of a skull, an imperfect lower jaw, 
Pieces of the right and left thigh bones, a piece of an upper arm 
bone, some fragments of the forearm and leg, and a few joints of 
fingers and toes. The bones were all of a diminutive size, evi- 
dently those of a dwarf. Basing an estimate on the proportions 
of the thigh bones to the whole skeleton, the individual is sup- 
posed to have been about three feet and a half high. The angles 
and articular processes of the lower jaw were broken off and the 
molar teeth had nearly all disappeared during life, and their 


406 CANNIBALISM IN AMERICA. 


alveoli had been absorbed. These facts indicate an individual 
which was, at the least, adult. Forty feet from the place where 
these bones were found, a large tree had been overturned, and 
among the shells carried up by the roots, was found a human 
ankle bone (an astragalus), but a careful search brought to light 
nothing else, in this direction, belonging to man. : 
6. A single fragment of a human upper jaw of the right side, 3 
was found in the large shell heap on the same island and near the 
river buried to the depth of six or seven feet, and could have been 
deposited there only at the time the mound was built. An upper 
arm bone, whole, parts of the lower jaw, and a few fragments of 
other bones, were discovered in the débris at the base of the same 
mound where it had been undermined, but the precise place from 
which they had fallen is uncertain. 
7. In the remnant of a mound, three-quarters of a mile below 
Hawkinsville and on the left bank, human bones were found, about | 
a foot deep, in a layer of shells not more than two feet thick. 
They appeared to be of the same age as the shells in which they ; 
were embedded, and were all broken, and much scattered, a proof | 
that they had not been buried. A second deposit was found . 
twenty-five feet from the preceding, the bones were somewhat in- 2 
crusted with lime, and were more decomposed. There were from 
the first locality seven fragments of cranium, two of the left | 
humerus, two of the left clavicle, one of the right ulna, one frag- . 
ment each of the right and left tibia and several small pieces of : 
other bones. The shore where both these sets were found had : 
, 


' been undermined and it is probable that many pieces had been 
washed away. 

8. Excavations made on the side of Bartram’s Mound near the 
river, and where it had been undermined, brought to light numer — 
ous pieces of human bones all belonging to one skeleton. There 
were eighteen fragments of cranium, the right half of the lower 
jaw, the teeth of which had nearly all been lost and their alveoli a 
absorbed, and thirty fragments of other bones including those of 
a femur, humerus, radius, tibia, fibula, and a patella. All of 
these appeared to have been covered for a long time, had losk 
nearly all their organic matter and were incrusted with a thin 
layer of calcareous deposit. It is quite likely that here too some 
of the bones originally deposited had been washed away by the 
river, as the mound at this point had been largely destroy ed. 1 


CANNIBALISM IN AMERICA. 407 


several instances the cranial bones were broken into small frag- 
ments and were irregularly cemented together by the deposit of 
lime. 

9. A large block of consolidated shells split from the front of 
Osceola Mound left exposed a portion of a human skull. In de- 
taching this, other bones were brought to view and excavations 
were continued until no further traces could be discovered. 
chief part of the bones were removed in a mass of conglomerate 
and subsequently exposed by chiselling away the matrix, but from 
which they have not been wholly detached. The organic matter 
has entirely disappeared and the matrix adheres so firmly to the 
bones, that it is very difficult to separate it without at the same 
time breaking off pieces of bony structure. 

Of all the human remains we have met with in the shell mounds 
these last are the most interesting, both on account of their greater 
age and of their being almost the only ones which can, with any 
certainty, be referred to the earliest period of the mounds. Osce- 
ola mound is one of the series in which pottery is not found, and 
its materials, as well as the mound as a whole, have undergone 
great changes. 

There are certainly bones from two individuals, mingled. Two 
thigh bones, which are mates, lie side by side, but in reversed 
positions, the upper part of one corresponding with the lower of 
the other. The articular portions are gone. Parts of at least two 
others were found, one of which was removed nearly whole. Of 
the other there are two cylindrical portions, one 55 and the other 
90™" long. The exposed ends of the shorter one show the inter- 
esting fact that the bone had been artificially divided, by cutting 
a groove around the circumference of the bone and thus weakening 
it and then breaking the remainder. This is a common method of 
dividing bones used by Indians. The broken surface and the 
marks of the cutting instrument are quite obvious. In the longer 
piece these marks are present but less distinct. As further evi- 
dence of the presence of bones from two individuals, may be men- 
tioned the lower ends of two upper arm bones, both from the right 
side and of different sizes, and both cemented together. There 
are three tibiæ, two of which are decidedly flattened and belonged 
to the same individual, the third having more nearly the triangular 
section, but only slightly flattened. 

Besides the above there are fragments of a scapula, pelvis, 


Moh E 
F 
; 


408 : CANNIBALISM. IN AMERICA. 


humerus, radius, tibia, ribs, tarsal and carpal bones and pha- 
langes. There are but few pieces of ribs, and but a single ver- 
tebra has been recognized. 

The different bones were artificially broken in a few cases only, 
and contrasted very strongly in this respect with those previously 
noticed. 

We have met with but a single other instance where human 
bones have shown signs of having been wrought by the aborigines. 
This was in the coast shell heap at Ipswich, Massachusetts, where 
Mr, Eliot Cabot discovered a human upper arm bone, which, as 
shown by the lines and marks on the surface had been ground or 
scraped. The nature of this instrument found is uncertain, as the 
end has been broken off. It is preserved in the Peabody Museum. 

10. At Huntoon Island, and in the rear of the shell mound on the 
St. John’s, are two conical mounds, and are supposed to be burial 
mounds, one fifteen and the other twenty-five feet high. Excava- 
tions carried to the depth of six feet, but arrested at this depth on 
account of our inability to get the necessary labor, did not, how- 
ever, reveal any evidence of burial in either of them. A collec- 
tion of human bones was obtained from the top of the larger of 
them at the depth of about a foot below the surface, which in all 
respects correspond with those previously described. They were 
scattered over an area of several square yards and belonged tof 
young individual as shown by the size of the bones and the condi- 
tion of the epiphyses. Each of the long bones was broken into 
two or more, and the skull into many, fragments. Pieces were 
found from all the principal divisions of the skeleton. There can 
be no doubt that the bones were intentionally broken, as the upper 
ends of two humeri show precisely similar marks of violence. In 
each case the'bone is broken off an inch below the head, by an 
instrument which crushed the bone, the fragments of which, flat- 
tened down, are retained in opposition, not having been originally 
completely separated. The bones are all incrusted with a calca- 
reous deposit, which in some cases cements the fragments, : 
others the smaller bones, as of the hands, together. Their condi- 
tion is similar to that of the bones from Bartram’s Mound already. i 
described. : 

The above are the chief instances of the presence of human ; 
remains in the shell mounds which have fallen under our notic®: 
They are not supposed to be the only ones which existed, for tbey 


ha EE ee ie abi ge RE Sema bap ENE eens ier es 


CANNIBALISM IN AMERICA. 409 


were all but one chance discoveries. In all but a single in- 
stance there was nothing to direct attention to one place rather 
than another in making excavations, and as these were begun 
at random it is all but certain that many others escaped detec- 
tion. 

It would perhaps be going too far to say that the presence of 
human bones, under the circumstances above described, amounted 
to absolute proof of cannibalism. The testimony of eye-witnesses 
would be the only sure evidence of it. There is, however, nothing 
with regard to them which is inconsistent with this practice, nor 
does any other explanation occur to us which accounts for their 
presence so well.* 

If there were any eye-witnesses of cannibalism among the Euro- 
peans who explored Florida in the earliest days of its history, 
they have left no records of the fact. In later times Jonathan 
Dickenson, a Pennsylvania quaker, who was wrecked on the coast 
near St. Lucia in 1699, in the narrative of his sufferings, calls the 
inhabitants cannibals, but nowhere saw human flesh eaten by 
them. The most direct statement he makes is as follows: “at 
this town about a twelve-month before a parcel of Dutch men 
were killed, who having been cast away on the Bohemia (Bahama) 
Shoals, they, in a flatt which they built, escaped hither and were 
devoured by these cannibals, as we understand by the Spaniards.” 
Tam indebted to Dr. C. F. Winslow for a statement in the records 
of Nantucket that Capt. Christopher Hussey ‘was cast away on 
the Florida coast and devoured by cannibals.” This event was 
also in the latter part of the seventeenth century.t 

The reasons derived from our own observations for believing 
Np gers ae ee mE ETL 


* A statement by Le Moyne would at first sight seem to suggest another explana- 
= € natives when first seen by the French had the habit of dismembering the 
bodies of their slain enemies and carrying off the scalps and limbs as trophies. Plate 
XVI represent lebration in which th hung up on stakes and around which 
à ceremony is going on. While such a custom might account for the presence of 
human bones in the shell heaps, it would not for the fragmentary condition in which 
these are found, nor for the systematic manner in which all the bones of the limbs, as 
Well as of the other parts of the skeleton, are broken up. In addition it may be sta 
that for reasons we have given elsewhere there is some doubt whether the Indians 
Who built the chan ead pm } fe 1 when the Europeans arrived 
in Florida, and consequently a practice prevailing among the latter might not exist 
the former. 


tGod’s Protecting Providence, Man’s direct Help and Defence, etc., p. 60, 8yo. 
London, 1700, 

t See doings of the N tucket Histori logical Society, in Nantucket Inquirer 
and Mirror. Noy, 22, 1873. 


410 CANNIBALISM IN AMERICA. 


that the ancient inhabitants of the St. John’s were cannibals may 
be stated as follows: 

1. The bones, an account of which has just been given, were 
not deposited there at an ordinary burial of a dead body. In this 
case after the decay of the flesh there would have remained a cer- 
tain order in the position of the parts of the skeleton, especially _ 
in the pelvis, the long bones of the limbs, the vertebral column 
and the head. The bones would be entire as in other burials. In 
the cases here described, they were, on the contrary, scattered in & 
disorderly manner, broken into many fragments, and often some 
important portions were missing, as the head at one of the mounds — 
near Blue Spring, the bones of an arm and leg at the other, and 
in other mounds a still larger number of bones. The fractures 48 
well as the disorder in which the bones were found evidently exist- 
ed at the time they were covered up, as is shown by the condition 
of the broken ends, which had the same discoloration as the 
natural surfaces. A 

he bones were broken as in the case of those of edible 
animals, as the deer, alligator, ete. This would be necessay 
to reduce the parts to a size corresponding with the vessels a 
which they were cooked, or suitable for roasting, or even for od E 
ing raw. a 

3. The breaking up of the bones had a certain amount of . 
method ; the heads of the humerus and femur were detached as if a 
. to avoid the trouble, or from ignorance as to the way, of disarticu- 
lating the joints. The shafts of these bones, as also those of Oe | 
forearm and leg, were regularly broken through the middle. bes : 
olecranon process of the ulna, was in some cases detached in o 

d to be m 


same manner as the corresponding part has been foun 
the deer. 

4. There is no evidence that the bones were 
while lying exposed upon the ground by wild animals, nie er 
wolves and bears. If they were thus broken one might ro 
ably expect to find the marks of teeth, but after a careful we ‘ 
ination of hundreds of pieces they have not been seen 1n a? 9 
instance. As a general rule dogs, and the same is true of T 
_ gnaw chiefly the ends of the bones, which are of a soft and spe™ 
texture, leaving the shaft, which is solid and unyielding * p the 
intact, or at any rate to the last. This is the case eve? bse 
bones of birds, which are so much smaller. In the bones 


broken up 


CANNIBALISM IN AMERICA. 411 


the mounds the spongy ends show no marks of teeth and are well 
preserved though detached from the shaft. 

e conclusion we have given is strengthened by the fact that 
cannibalism prevailed largely in both North and South America, 
and that the natives of America were led to it by the same mo- 
tives as were those of other parts of the world. In general this 
practice may be said to commend itself to the savage mind from 
the following considerations :— 

With some it was a matter of choice, depending upon a liking 
for human flesh as an article of food, as with the Fijians, who had 
not even the excuse growing out of a scarcity, for food of all 
kinds existed with them in greatest abundance. With others, and 
these are by far the most numerous, it was practised as an act of 
vengeance or triumph over a fallen foe, and with still others it 
may be said to have been of the nature of a superstitious rite or 
ceremony, as with the ancient Mexicans, the Miamis, and others. 
To the above should be added the pressure of extreme hunger, 
Which drives both savage and civilized man to this terrible al- 
ternative. 

Of starvation nothing need be said, except that it is not im- 
probable that the idea of eating human flesh as ordinary food, may, 
perhaps, have had its origin in eating it as a necessity. Once 


_ tasted and found to be good, as all cannibals aver that it is, under 


the influence of savage instincts and passions, the conversion of 
an enemy’s flesh into meat to eat would be very natural. 

Of course the above motives, excluding the last, may be more 
or less combined, and a savage by eating his enemy may get his 
Tevenge and satisfy his appetite at the same time. Or, as with 
the New Zealander, who loves human flesh as a choice food, and 
Who also eats it under the superstitious belief that he thus not 
only incorporates the body of his enemy with his own, but absorbs 
also his enemy’s soul, so that ever after the two are one. To the 
victors this had an especial significance, for believing in a future. 
State and the presence of his enemy there, if he eats him in this 
life he makes sure of it that there will be no trouble with him 
hereafter, for he possesses him body and soul already. 

th the cannibalism as practised in the two Americas, one recog- 
mizes the same motives and tendencies and often combined with 
them, in addition, a degree of cruelty to their victims unsurpassed 
in other parts of the world. 


412 CANNIBALISM IN AMERICA. 


fearful struggle for existence, with the elements on the one h 
and savage foes and scarcity of food on the other, would seem 


Capt. Fitzroy has given a sad picture of these poor, wretched 
creatures, living on the very verge of regions just capable of süs- 
taining life. They habitually eat their prisoners of war, and 
severe winters, when snow and ice cut off their usual supply of TA 
food, the old women are sacrificed without hesitation. Having 
choked and smothered them over a dense smoke, they eat them to 
the last scrap. The life of the dog, however, is spared under 
these circumstances, as he can render efficient aid in hunting, 
which the old women cannot. * 
Of the prevalence of cannibalism in Guiana, there is evidence 
from various sources. The histories printed by De Bry t are full 
of particulars of the manner in which the bodies of victims are 
prepared, cooked and eaten. Pizarro and his companions, ia t 
first but fruitless attempts to reach Peru from Panama, came Sut 
denly upon an Indian village, when the inhabitants instantly of 
leaving human flesh cooking before the fire.{ We have the autho 
ity of Humboldt for its existence on the Orinoco at the time 
travelled there.g Brett found what he was undoubtedly com 
in considering the remains of a cannibal feast in an ancient sit 
heap.|| The Mexicans practised cannibalism on a most extens 
scale on certain occasions. A prisoner was delivered to 3 
warrior who had taken him in battle, and by him after bem 
dressed was served at an entertainment of his friends. «This; 
says Prescott, “was not the coarse repast of famished cannibs 
but a banquet teeming with delicious beverages and ¢ 
viands, prepared with art and attended. by both sexes, W 
ducted themselves with all the decorum of civilized life.” 
There were other kinds of victims. As is well known, 


StS DNAs Soe ae een me ee 


ancient Mexicans. ` Their war god was constantly hon 


* Voyage of Adventure and Beagle. Vol. ii, pp. 183 a 
t See De Bry’s narratives — Brazil, Voyage of yorker soar 
89, w and 127; also voyage of Joannes Lerus, Burgundus, p. 21 


-|| Rev. J. G. Wood. Uneivilized Races in All opiti of the World. 
1870. Vol. ii, p. 602. 
T Prescott, History Conquest Mexico. Philadelphia, 1874. Vol. i, p-st- 


CANNIBALISM IN AMERICA. 413 


them, and the companions of Cortez saw large piles of the skulls 
of those who had been sacrificed. On such occasions, after the 
heart had been cut with an obsidian knife from the living victim, 
it was offered to the sun and then to the god; the body was 
thrown down the teocalli and afterwards divided and eaten. The 
native allies of the Spaniards, in the siege of Mexico, ate the 
bodies of their dead enemy.* In the city of Mexico itself, as the 
siege was prolonged and food became scarce, the number of vic- 
tims first sacrificed to propitiate the god of war in hope of relief, 
then served out as food to the starving people, was very large. 
These sacrifices were often made in the sight of the Spaniards, 
who sometimes recognized the lighter skin of their countrymen as 
they wound their way up to the sacrificial stone to be in turn dis- 
tributed as food among the besieged. t 

Of all the American cannibals the Caribs undoubtedly had a 
stronger love for human flesh than any others, and not only ate 
their enemies taken in battle as a matter of revenge as well as 
gratification, but, like the Fijians, even fattened their prisoners for 
` the cook-house that they might make better and more palatable 
food. It was also practised among the Iroquois, Algonquins, 
Mamis and Kickapoos ;§ it existed in Louisiana, || Illinois, and on 
the northwest coast. The most precise narratives we have of this 
Practice are, however, to be found among the ‘relations’ of the 
Jesuits who were often eye-witnesses of the feasts of human flesh 
held by the Iroquois and Algonquin tribes. 

One shudders with horror at the prolonged tortures which pre- 
ceded death and the feast among these savage people. Every 
device cruelty could suggest was practised. Long before death, 
Sometimes days, torture began. Burning brands were applied to 
the naked skin, nails were bitten from the fingers, and flesh from 
the limbs, gashes were cut in the arms and legs and hot brands 
thrust into them; the scalp was stripped from the head and live 
Coals and hot ashes poured upon the bleeding surface. Women 
and children joined in these fiendish atrocities, and when at length 
the victim yielded up his life, his heart, if he were brave, was 


* Ibid., bane » p- 132. 
t Ibid., 
ecade i, ea folio 2, A. 

ss to Ontwa the son of the Forest, a poem by Henry 


822, p 
Father Hennepin, Bac tedlak de la Louisiane, Paris, 1868. pp. 65, 68, 69. 


414 THE HISTORY OF THE LOBSTER. 


ripped from his body, cut in pieces, broiled, and given to the young 
men under the belief that it would increase their courage; they 
drank his blood, thinking it would make them more wary, and — 
finally his body was divided limb from limb, roasted or thrown 
into the seething pot, and hands and feet, arms and legs, head 
and trunk, were all stewed into a horrid mess, and eaten amidst 
yells, songs and dances.* 
` Much more might be added but enough has been said for our- 
purpose, viz: to show that cannibalism being so common in other 
arts of America, there would be no improbability of its existence 
in Florida. We have entered more into details than we otherwise 
should because the subject of American cannibalism has not re- — 
ceived the attention it deserves. Mr. Francis Parkman is almost 
the only one who has taken the trouble to call attention to the 
documentary evidence which exists bearing upon it, and I am 
largely indebted to his writings and to himself personally for 
references to original statements. 


THE HISTORY OF THE LOBSTER. 


Ar length we have in a paper by Mr. S. I. Smith, assistant in 7 
the Sheffield Scientific School, New Haven, a careful history of the 2 
changes undergone by our native lobster, with valuable informa 
tion on the season of breeding, and other facts of practical i 
terest. The lobster, so important as an article of diet, is dying 
out from overfishing, and the time may come when it will have i 
be artificially raised. The information afforded by Mr. Smith is 
a result of the comprehensive views of Professor Baird, U. ' 
Commissioner of fisheries, who, besides his own laborious inquiries 
into the condition and prospects of our fisheries, has called en 
aid many naturalists, who have by their special researches, T 
the aid of the vessels and apparatus afforded by gover” 


* For a justification of this picture of savagery the reader is referred to La Fo 
Hist. de ? Amerique. Paris, 1722, p. 23. Relation of Barthelemy de Vimout, 1642 Po 
Relation of Jean Brebeuf, July 1636, p. 121. Relation of Francois Joseph Le *™ 
June, 1637, p. 118, Relation of Vimout, 1644, p. 41. 


r 
j 


THE HISTORY OF THE LOBSTER. 415 


thrown much light on the natural history of our fishes and their 
food 

The following is an abstract (often in the author’s own words) 
of Mr. Smith’s paper, which appeared late during 1873, in the 
Transactions of the Con- Fig. 81. , 
necticut Academy (vol. ii) 
and in part in the appendix 
to the report of the U.S. 
Fish Commissioner, lately 
issued. The season at 
which the female lobsters 
carry eggs varies much on 
different parts of the coast. 
Mr. Smith states that lob- 


and Stonington, Conn., are 
with eggs in April and 
May, while at Halifax he 
found them with eggs, in 
which the embryos were 

just beginning to develop, early in September. We have seen 
them in Salem with the embryos ready to hatch in the middle of 
May, and are told by Mr. J. H. Emerton, that they also breed 
here in November. It is not impossible that they breed at inter- 
vals throughout the year. This is an important point. At any 
rate there should be a close time on the coast of New England, 
during April and May, and October and November. Persons 
should also be fined heavily for selling lobsters with eggs attached. 
The appearance of the embryo in the egg is represented by fig. 
81.* He divides the larval condition of the lobster into three 
Stages. The first, represented on plate 3, figs. A, B (D one of 
the cephalothoracie legs of the second pair, enlarged 20 diameters ; 
a, exopodus ; b, epipodus; c, branchial appendages), is a little 
under a third of an inch long, and was found early in July at 
SS a peer aE IRAE BRS MR Le E 


a Embryo, some time before hatching, removed from the external envelope and 
own in a side view, enlarged 20 diameters; a, a, dark green yolk mass still unab- 
Sorbed; b, lateral margin of the carapax marked with many dendritic spots of red pig- 


forms the big claw of the adult; h, outer swimming branch or exopodus of the same; 
the four ambulatory legs with their exopodal branches; &, intestine; J, heart; m, 
lobed il si Wi 


gewise. 


416 THE HISTORY OF THE LOBSTER. 


Wood’s Hole, Mass. In the second stage, the animal has in- 
creased in size, and rudimentary appendages have appeared upon 
the second to the fifth segments of the abdomen. oik 
In the third stage* the animal is about half an inch long, and 
has begun to lose its Mysis-like (Schizopodal) appearance and 
assume some of the features of the adult. : Tuya 
There are probably two succeeding stages before the adult fom 
is attained, one is described by our author, while the first of the 
two he supposes to have existed, but has not yet discovered. After 
this the animal ceases to swim on the surface and late in summer 
seeks the bottom. They feed on the young of various animals, — 
the larve of their crustacea, and, when much crowded in captivity, 
on one another, the stronger devouring the weaker. In the first 
stage of the adult form when the animal is about three-fifths of a 
inch long, it still differs from the adult so much that it would be — 
regarded as a distinct genus. ‘In this stage, the young lobsters — 
swim very rapidly by means of the abdominal legs, and dart back- 
wards, when disturbed with the caudal appendages, frequently 
jumping out of the water in this way like shrimp which their moye- 
ments in the water much resemble. They appear to live & large 
part of the time at the surface, as in the earlier stages, and were 
often seen swimming about among other surface animals. They 
were frequently taken from the 8th to the 28th of July, and v 
likely occur much later.” Mr. Smith thinks the young - 
through all the stages he describes in the course of a single season. 
Those in the last stage mentioned he believes had not been nate’ es 
from the eggs more than six weeks and very likely a shorter tinti 
How long the young retain their free swimming habit after arrivi 
at the lobster-like form, was not ascertained. ae 
Specimens three inches in length have acquired nearly all ie 
characters of the adult. The description of the different S% 
are very detailed, and accompanied by admirable figures. — p 
“Of all the larval stages of other genera of crustacea of 
I have seen figures or descriptions, there are none which aro s 
allied to the early stages. of the lobster. Astacus, according 
_ Rathke, leaves the egg in a form closely resembling the adult, 
—-#(PL.3, fig. E, larva enlarged eight diameter. F, terminal portion of the 
‘Sess roin above; enlarged 18 dimmetee; a one of the ema See 
cephalothoracic legs of the second pair, showing the epipodus and branchial 
ages, enlarged 20 diameters.) 


EARLY STAGES OF THE LOBSTER. 


THE HISTORY OF THE LOBSTER. 417 


cephalothoracic legs having no exopodal branches and the abdom- 
inal legs being already developed. Of the early stages of the 
numerous other genera of Astacidea and Thalassinidea, scarcely 
anything is known, but as far as is known, none of them appear 
to approach the larvie of the lobster. Most of the ‘species of 
Crangonidz and Palemonidz (among the most typical of macrou- 
rans), of which the development is known, are hatched from the 
egg in the zoéa stage, in which the five posterior pairs of cephalo- 
thoracic appendages, or decapodal legs, are wholly wanting, as are 
also the abdominal legs, while the two anterior pairs of maxilli- 
peds, or all of them, are developed into locomotive organs. In no 
period of their development do they have all the decapodal legs 
furnished with natatory exopodal branches. There are undoubtedly 
larval forms closely allied to those of Homarus in some of the 
groups of Macrourans, although they appear to be as yet unknown. 

‘* Notwithstanding these larval forms of the lobster seem to have 
no close affinities with the known larve of other genera of macrou- 
rans, they do show in many characters a very remarkable and in- 
teresting approach to the adult Schizopoda, particularly to the 
Mysidæ. This appears to me to furnish additional evidence that 
the Schizopods are only degraded macrourans much more closely 
allied to the Sergestide than to the Squilloidea.” 

The mode of moulting of the lobster, does not seem to have 
been observed. We are indebted to Mr. William H. Silsbee for in- 
formation and specimens regarding that of the adult lobster. He 
thinks it only moults once a year after having nearly attained its 
maturity at some period between May and November. n 
vember 8th he saw one moult. It drew its body out of a rent in 
the carapace, or shell covering the front division of the body. 
The carapace splits from its hind edge as far as the base of the 
rostrum, or beak, where it is too solid to separate. The body is 
drawn out of the anterior part of the carapace. It has been a 
question how the creature could draw its big claw out through the 
small basal joints. The claw, soft and fleshy and very watery, is 
drawn out through the basal joint, without any split in the old 
crust. In moulting, the stomach, with the cartilaginous masses 
and bands and œsophagus, is cast off with the old integument. 
The length of the animal observed before moulting was six and a 
half inches ; immediately after seven and a any a sudden in- ` 
crease in length of three-quarters of an inch.—A. 

AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 27 


- 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


FıæLD ORrxITHOLOGY.*— So much depends upon accurate and 
thorough field-work that ornithologists will heartily thank Dr. 
Coues for his excellent “ Manual of Instruction,” for it contains 
just the hints, if followed, to give the highest value to the work 
of the collector. Poorly prepared skins are unsightly enough, and 
indeed, a genuine eye-sore in cabinets, but if accompanied by de- 
tailed notes of date and locality, with a further record of sex and 
measurements, they have afar higher scientific value than if in 
themselves without blemish, but lacked these essential items of in- 
formation. In this small volume of one hundred and sixteen pages, 
Dr. Coues has treated the general subject of collecting in a very 
detailed and highly satisfactory manner, his varied experience in 
the field, and his knowledge of what constitutes good working 
material, fitting him eminently for the task he has here attempted. 

eginning with the selection and care of guns, ammunition and 
general equipments, he treats in the following chapters of how, 
where and when to seek for birds, and of how to handle and catty 
them when obtained; of note-taking, labelling and measuring, 
determining sex, etc.; of the preparation of bird-skins, with di- 
rections also for mounting ; for collecting and preserving nienia 
and eggs, making cabinets, and guarding collections against 
insect pests, etc. Assuming the reader’s total ignorance of the 
subject, he adopts an easy, familiar style, with here and there a 
raciness that relieves the tediousness of the details which neces- — 
sarily go to make up works of this class. ras 

‘In respect to one point, however, we beg leave to differ from : 
our accomplished author, and that is in respect to baking skins = 
to rid them of insect pests. The process is undoubtedly thor 
oughly efficacious as regards the destruction of the insects, but, : 
what is also of some importance, the baking nearly ruins © — 
skins, rendering them extremely fragile. Bird skins, howeve? - 
seem suffer much less by this process than mammal skira 
which baking once or twice is usually sufficient to utterly ruin 


. * Field Ornithology. Comprising a Manual of Instruction for procuring: } ‘Elliott 
and pi ing Birds, and a Check List of North American Birds. By Wr york: 
Coues, U.S. A. Salem: Naturalists’ Agency. Boston: Estes & Lauriat- BOW 
Dodd & Mead, 1874. 

(418) 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 419 


sometimes causing them to fall almost in pieces of their own 
weight. The present writer, although having had the care of one 
of the largest collections of skins in this county for over ten years, 
has never yet found it necessary to bake a skin to rid it of insects, 
having accomplished it by other means. Drenching a skin in 
the best quality of benzine is far preferable to baking, but this 
is objectionable from its sometimes (generally only after several 
applications) leaving a sticky residuum on the plumage. A 
better process is that of thorough fumigation with the bi-sulphide 
of carbon, which may be accomplished without the offensiveness 
of the fumes being very apparent by using a tight fumigating 
box or chest made expressly for this purpose. 

The “Check List,” though bound with the Manual, is essen- 
tially a distinct publication, being also issued separately. It is 
intended for use in labelling collections, and is hence printed on 
only one side of the paper. The two together form a supplement 
to the Key, of which they were originally intended to form a part. 
The “Check List” is a publication of more importance than to some 
its name might seem to imply. It is based, the author tells us, 
on the Key, and “reflects exactly whatever of truth or error that 
work represents.” It differs quite materially from the Smithsonian 
Check List, published in 1858, as it very naturally should, in 
order to properly represent the present state of ornithological 
science in this country. Its greatest modification pertains, per- 
haps, to the system of nomenclature itself, through the introduc- 
tion of varietal names. This, the recent advances in American 
ornithology have rendered imperatively necessary for the proper 
recognition of the numerous intergrading forms which result from 
different conditions of environment. But, aside from this, the 
present list differs from the former in containing much fewer gen- 
eric names; in embracing some fifty species added to the North 
American fauna since 1858, and in the exclusion of about 150 
of the specific names of the former list, from their being ‘* extra- 
Jimital, invalid or otherwise untenable,” though a large proportion 
of them still appear in the varietal designations. As already 
indicated, the ‘Check List” is a reproduction of the names used 
in the Key, with, however, the addition of authorities for both the 
Specific and varietal names, including not only the name of the 
describer of the species’ or variety, but also the authority for the 
present association of the names in question. It also includes 


420 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


a number of species and varieties published since the appearance — 
of the Key, the list being brought down to April of the present 
year. In his preface the author alludes to the “ many needless 
and burdensome generic names,” unfortunately adopted in Prof. 
Baird’s great work, “for,” he adds, “ sanctioned by the usage of 
such high authority, they have passed current, and are too closely 
ingrained in our nomenclature to be soon eradicated.” This, how- 
ever, only represents one of the phases through which our science 
has passed, and which was not wholly without redeeming features, 
however true it may be that the time has come for us to rid our 
selves of such now useless relics. During the publication of the 
Key, Dr. Coues instituted this needed reform, but too late for its 
systematic application throughout the class. The land birds were 
hence left in this respect unchanged, while in the generic names of 
the waders and swimmers we were carried back again to the days 
of Audubon, the genera adopted being essentially those of his Sy- 
nopsis. The publication of the “ Check List” seemed to present 
a favorable opportunity for a similar restriction among the land 
birds, which our author has failed to improve. It is hence a mat- 
ter of regret that he has rigidly adhered to the Key, instead of er 
departing from it sufficiently to have given us à consistent system: 
of generic names throughout. — J. A. A. 


REEE E r AA A 


Tue Burrerriies or Norra America. *— The success (in every 
way but a pecuniary one) of the first series of this admirable 
work, has led to the publication of a second. This will not be 
strictly confined to the descriptions and delineations of new spe 
cies, but the metamorphoses of species before described will be - 
given, a much more important matter than the description and a 
illustration of new species, unless accompanied by life histoni a 
The plates of this new part are thoroughly well done; 4 little me 
attention, however, to the drawing of the larvæ and pupe "ema 
add to the perfect accuracy of the figures devoted to them, though 
the faults we perceive in one or two cases, i. e. an indistinetness of 
outline of the body and its parts, may be due to the printer. 
wish the pages could be numbered, for ease in future Te a 
The text is lucid and interesting, the plates are not inferior "a 
best ever published in Europe, and the work is in every WH 

` *The Butterflies of North America, with colored drawings and deseription®- p 
H. Ædwards. Second Series, Part I. New York: Hurd and Hough Ma 
4to, pp. 18 and 5 colored plates. $2.50 a part, 


AA R E ie 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 421 


credit to the country. It is an admirable presentation book, 
either for young entomologists, or as an attractive serial for the 
drawing-room table. 


Derr Sea Frortpan Poryzoa.* —This elaborate treatment of 
the Polyzoa of the Floridan channel is based on the deep sea 
dredging made by Count Pourtalés of the U. S. Coast Survey. The 
geographical distribution of the forms found at the greatest depths 
in the channel, is of high interest as the assemblage embraced not 
only well known arctic but also antarctic, and even Australian 
species, with those purely tropical. The collection affords, as Dr. 
Smitt states, ‘new confirmation to the geographical theory first 
and most clearly stated by Prof. S. Lovén, that the deep sea fauna 
is a uniform one, connecting the north pole with the south through 
species of animals distinguished by their strong vital force, and, 
therefore, also by their great geological age.” Several cretaceous, 
and a number of tertiary (European, Australian and Californian) 
Species are recorded as now living in the Floridan seas. 


Tue PUBLICATIONS or THE BUFFALO SOCIETY or NATURAL SCI- 
ENCES.t— The fourth and last number of the first volume of the 
“ Bulletin” of this society is a capital one if we consider either the 
number and variety of the papers, the excellence of the illustra- 
tions, or the promptness with which the parts are issued. The 


evinces the interest felt in scientific studies by the citizens. Sev- 
eral entomological papers are contributed by Mr. Grote, the cu- 
rator of articulates and chairman of the publication committee, 
by Mr. Scudder, Mr. H. K. Morrison, Dr. L. F. Harvey, and Dr. 
LeConte ; two paleontological articles are prepared by Mr. R. 
Rathburn and W. H. Pitt. The Contributions to the omei 
and Physical Geography of the Lower Amazons, by Prof. C. F. 
Hartt, is a paper of so much general interest that we a notice 
it at length hereafter. 


List or Norru Americas Noctur Morss.{—Mr. Grote has 
before supplied entomologists with a catalogue of our Sphingide, 


* Floridan n Bryozoa, collected by Count L, F. de Pou rtalés. Described by F. A. Smitt. 
1, 2, with 18 plates (Transactions of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science) 
1872-3.) 4to, pp. 20, 83. Printed in the English language. 
t Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. Buffalo, N. Y. Vol. i. 8vo,. 
PP. 289, with 11 plates and woodcuts. 1873-4. 
t List of th e Noctuidæ of North America. By Aug. R. Grote, Buffalo, N. Ty , May, 
1874, 8v0, pp. 77, with colored plate. 


422 BOTANY. 


Zygenide and Bombycidx, and now we have an admirably pre- 
pared list of the next extensive family, the Noctuide. No other 
list has been published since the imperfect one contained in Dr. 
Morris’ Catalogue of our Lepidoptera published by the Smithsonian 
Institution in 1860. esd 
The species enumerated by Mr. Grote amount to 815, belonging 
to 282 genera, including the Deltoids (Hypena and allies) which — 
the author, following Lederer, takes out of the Pyralide. Though 
it is not stated in the preface, the list is evidently restricted to 
that part of the continent north of the West Indies and Mexico. 
The most important synonyms are given, with an index to the 
genera. The appendix contains a number of new genera and: 
species, illustrated in part by an excellent plate. The distribution 
of the genera is given ; we wish that the localities of all the species 
separately could have been added. 


SA am ee e A ATA 


BOTANY. 

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION or THe Cupurireræ.—This large 
family, including the chestnuts, oaks, and beeches, since it 18 
the earliest geologically of the dicotyledonous plants, affords much 


direction, by A. S. Orsted, in which the morphology, classifica 
tion and geographical distribution of the family, are trea 


with the generally received law, that the more the classi 
a family rests on characteristics which indicate a real re 
the clearer it appears, that each subdivision has its owD centre 
distribution, and further that the greater the differences of a 
ganization between the subdivisions, the greater the geograp™" 
distances between these centres. Thus the chestnuts, oaks ae 
beeches, constituting the three groups of this family, afford bes 
principal centres of distribution, and cover three large, 
separated geographical regions; the chestnuts having their í 
in the Malay islands, the oaks in Mexico, and the beeches 10 =i 
America. The chestnut group, which is sharply separat 

the other groups, also has its own peculiar, tolerably well 


a 


BOTANY. 423 


region, manifesting its greatest diversity of form, and its purest. 
types on the Malay islands, especially on Java and Sumatra, 
where its proper centre lies. But one species passes its bounda- 
ries toward the west, and plays an important part around the 
Mediterranean, and three species are found in America, whilst the 
typical genus is found exclusively on the Malay islands, where 
only a few species of chestnut-oak are found, and not a single true 
oak. Ina similar manner the oak group occurs chiefly in Amer- 
ica, north of the equator, forming a second centre of distribution 
in the mountains of Mexico, where it manifests not only more 
numerous species but also greater diversity of organization, than 
anywhere else, several large subdivisions being found that are not 
met with elsewhere, whilst chestnuts and beeches are entirely 
wanting. Although the beech group exhibits such a preponder- 
ance of species in Chili, that that country must be regarded as its 
proper home, still the species are so scattered that it is difficult, 
with the present distribution of land and water, to refer all to a 
single centre. This difficulty is not so great, however, in regard 
to Nothofagus, which occurs in New Zealand and Van Dieman’s 
Land, since there are other grounds for assuming that these were 
at one period connected with Chili. Still it seems impossible to 
refer the species of Fagus to the same centre, since the nearest 
related species is separated by 70° of latitude from the beeches of 
the south, so that, paradoxical as it may appear, Japan seems once 
to have formed the connection between the beeches of the north 
and south, just as we find points of contact between Chili and 
Japan in other respects. An explanation of this is afforded by 
the fact that the beeches of Japan conform to those of the Miocene 
epoch ; the centre of distribution of the typical beeches must there- 
fore be sought in a past geological period, and from it they must 
have been dispersed in different directions, before the present dis- 
tribution of land and water. Besides the three principal centres 
alluded to, there are also three secondary centres of distribution 
characterized by peculiar genera and sub-genera. The principal 
groups in passing beyond their respective regions, and mingling 
with each other have produced regions of transition, in which forms 
appear which are the connecting links between the types from the 
different centres. Various facts in regard to the distribution of 
Plants in general are also peculiarly illustrated by this family. 
Thus it exhibits most clearly the marked difference between the 


424 BOTANY. 


floras of Mexico and the Antilles, the oaks being more numerous _ 
in Mexico than any other portion of the world, whilst they are | 
wholly wanting in the Antilles, although the latter afford climatic 
conditions favorable to their growth in many places. This con- 
trast, can be partially explained, as regards the oaks, by the fact 
that the seeds of the latter soon lose their power of germination, 
and are not easily transported by currents; and besides the oaks 
occur in the mountainous regions of Mexico, remote from the sea, 
and even if the seeds were transported by the aid of rivers, they 
would not find conditions favorable to their development on the 
coast of the Antilles, a fact in harmony with the general rule, that 
the larger number of the plants common to the Antilles and the 
continent belong to the lowlands of the tropics, whilst the plants 2 
of the mountains are generally endemic. The distribution of the 
_ Cupuliferæ also substantiates, in a remarkable manner, the general 
rule that the floras richest in endemic species are those where the 
physical obstructions to diffusion of plants are greatest, the ocean, 
high snow-covered mountain ranges, especially those with their 
axes perpendicular to the direction of the wind, forming sharply 
defined limits of floras. Thus whilst the white oak occurs all over 
Europe, the species of cupuliferse in Sumatra and Java are entirely = 
different from -each other. In like manner the characteristic i | 
cupuliferæ of California are restricted to the western slope of the — 
Nevada chain, and the beeches of Chili are entirely excluded from - 
the east side of the snow-covered Cordilleras. This family also a 
manifests the usual anomalies to the general rule, that the zone of - 
vegetation becomes more elevated near the equator, caused by P% 
culiarities in the form of the mountains, and the influence To 
clouds, a high plateau, with stronger insolation, producing & pe ; 
siderable elevation of the zone and the snow line, as in Bor 
and Thibet, whilst abrupt, isolated peaks have a reverse pe 
Thus Europe exhibits the influence of plateaus upon the cupulifer® é 
in two points, namely in the central part of the Alps, @ = 


1000 feet higher than in the Bavarian Alps. Again the chest 
zone, which reaches 5,000 feet on the Sierra Nevadas, which ‘he 
on the plateau of Grenada, does not rise above 3,200 ep . to 
same latitude, in Portugal. This is owing, it is true, in patt 


ZOOLOGY. 425 


peculiar climatic conditions, which produce an unusual depression 
of the zones in Portugal, and which also manifest themselves in 
rendering the zone of vegetation much lower in Sumatra than in 
Java, on acccount of the difference in insolation, caused by’ the 
more frequent and heavier clouds in Sumatra, where the axis of 
the mountains is perpendicular to the course of the moist, pre- 
vailing winds, whilst in Java it is parallel to it. In this respect 
Portugal resembles Sumatra, and nowhere are the effects of sim- 
ilar climatic conditions more evident than in the southern portions 
of Chili, and in Terra del Fuego. 


Nore on THE INFLUENCE OF LIGHT on THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
Prants.—Last summer a Mentychia ornata, about a fortnight be- 
fore commencing to bloom, was prostrated by a storm and re- 
mained in that position for a week before I restored it to its 
upright position. The inflorescence of Mentychia is centrifugal, 
the terminal flower opening first and the rest in their order down- 
ward, each flower opening in the evening and closing before sun- 
rise, reopening on a second and usually on a third evening. In 
this instance the regular order was disturbed, the second flower 
not opening till after the fourth, then the fifth to the eighth in 
order, then the twelfth followed by the eleventh, ninth and tenth, 
then the thirteenth followed by the sixteenth, fourteenth and fif- 
teenth. All the retarded flowers were on the lower side of the 
prostrate plant, the retardation being the consequence of the di- 
minished exposure to light during one week.—F rep. BRENDEL. 


ZOOLOGY. 

Tue STRUCTURE or Sroncrs.—An exceedingly valuable work 
on the calcareous sponges has lately been published by Professor 
Haeckel. An increased interest in these organisms has been felt 
from their frequent occurrence at great depths in the sea, the vari- 
ous dredging expeditions in the north Atlantic and the Mediterra- 
nean having revealed many new forms of the silicious, or glass 
Sponges and their allies. Of the animal nature of sponges but 
few naturalists doubt. Carter, an English microscopist believed 
that the sponge was an aggregation of Ameeba-like infusoria, liv- 
ing among a framework of silicious or limestone spicules. A 
little later, the lamented Professor H. J. Clark, of this country 
published, in 1866, a paper in which he maintained that the sponge 


426 ZOOLOGY. 


was an aggregation of flagellate infusoria, like monads of the 
era Monas, Anthophysa, Codosiga, etc. The sponge, then, in 
view was a compound protozoan animal. Now Haeckel contends 
that these monads of Clark are simply cells lining the general 
stomach-cavity of the sponge, each bearing a cilium or thread, and 
that the sponge is not a compound infusorian, but a much mone 
highly organized animal related to the radiates, such as the Po- 
lyps (Hydra, ete.). He distinguishes in them a general cavity 
or stomach, the walls of which consist, as in the Acalephs, of t e 
layers (entoderm and exoderm) of cells. He regards the sponges 
and Acalephæ as having been evolved froma common ancestor 
which he terms Protascus. Ai, 
Since writing the foregoing lines we have received a paper by 
Metschnikoff on the development of a calcareous sponge (Sycon 
ciliatum). He clearly proves that Haeckel’s view of the struc 
ture of the sponges was correct, but shows that there is no real 
relationship between the sponges and radiates. 


Harcker’s EMBRYONAL AND ANCESTRAL FORM OF ALL ANIMALS 
Regarding the sponges, then, as consisting of two layers of cells, 
surrounding a body cavity, somewhat as in the Hydra, Haeckel 
compares the sponge to the embryos of the higher animals, both 
vertebrate and invertebrate. In his view the germ of all an 
and the adult of such a simple form as Hydra, may be reduced 
the simple form of the young of a calcareous sponge which à 
calls Gastrula. “The Gastrula I consider as the truest and most 
significant embryonal-form of the animal kingdom.” It leads 
his view to the sponges, to the Acalephæ, to the worms, to = 
echinoderms, to the mollusks, and to the vertebrates, through 
phioxus. Embryonal forms which may easily be traced H 
Gastrula, occur among the Arthropods (Crustacea as well a 2 
sects). In all these representatives of different stocks of anim 
the Gastrula always maintains the same structure. From | 
identity in form of the Gastrula with the representatives of 
different animal stocks (or sub-kingdoms), from the sponges UP 
the vertebrates, he imagines an unknown stem-form of $ 

ified by Gastrula, which he calls Gastrea. 

‘Temperature AND Lire or tHe Arctic OCEAN. — 
Moebius’ report on the Zoology of the Second German N 5 
V oyage (translated and abridged in the Annals and Ms 


i 


ZOOLOGY. 427 


Natural History, March) it is stated that so slight are the oscilla- 
tions of temperature in the polar sea above the parallel of 70°, 
(ranging between 32° and 36° Fahr.) that the marine animals of 
Greenland are in just as favorable a position as the -animals of 
the tropical seas, where, as observed by Dana, and others more re- 
tently, the temperature of the surface and the bottom at 22 fath- 
oms was identical. 

“ I suppose that the nearly uniform temperature in which the 
high northern marine animals live is one of the chief causes of the 
considerable size by which, according to numerous observations, 
they are ima from individuals of the same species in 
temperate regions; for at the bottom of the icy sea, species which 
from their nature can ome in a low temperature, are but little if 


on temperature) than in individuals of the same species ich: in- 
habit, for example, the middle and higher regions of the North Sea 


est temperatures of the water amount to 10°-15° R. (=22°-5-383° 
“15 F.), or sometimes even more, as has been ascertained by H. A. 
Meyer, for various points in the western basin of the Baltic, ay tel 
myself for two places in the North Sea off the German coas 


A Worm wire Externat Ovarres.—In the same paper Prof. 
Moebius figures and describes a new genus of chætopod worms 


_ With external ovaries from the eighteenth segment onwards: they 


are situated below the branchiæ, and at the boundary between 
the two segments. Within the body-wall in the same segments are 
also eggs. The worm is named Leipoceras uviferum. It is the 
only worm. known which has external ovaries. In a notice in the 
Same journal it is stated that Moebius has discovered that another 
worm (Scolecolepis cirrata Sars) carries its eggs in pouches like a 
Swallow's nest, along the hinder segments of the body. Many Poly- 
chætous worms bear their eggs in sacs attached to the ventral sur- 
face of the body (e. g., Autolycus prolifer Mill.). One (Syllis 


` Pulligera Krohn) carries them in the shorter dorsal filaments of its 


feet, while in Spirorbis spirillum, the eggs are carried in folds of 
the skin, developed in the peduncle of the operculum, with which 
it closes its tube. 


A REMARKABLE BEETLE PARASITE OF THE Breaver.— Dr. Le- 
Conte describes, in the “Proceedings of the Zoological Society of 


428 ZOOLOGY. 


London,” Nov. 5, 1872, a new family of Coleoptera under the term a 
Platypsyllide, founded on Platypsylla castoris (Fig. 82), made — 
known by Ritsema, who discovered it on — 
specimens of the American beaver in the — 
Zoological gardens of Amsterdam. A little — 
later Prof. Westwood described it under the — 
name of Platypsyllus castorinus, a singular 
coincidence as regards the scientific name. — 
Ritsema regarded it as representing a family e 
of the Aphaniptera, equivalent in value to — 
the Pulicide, i. e., dipterous. Westwood — 
thought it to be a type of a new order of — 
insects, the Achreioptera. Dr. LeConte, and i 
we are fortunate in having in our country : 
one who easily leads the ranks of Coleopter 3 
ists, after a hasty examination, regarded the — 
insect as coleopterous, a conclusion confirmed by farther careful 
study, the results of which are presented in the beautiful paper — 
before us. > 
In this singular insect, the body is long oval, flattened, spiny 
on the exposed portions, resembling at first sight a minute cock- 7 
roach, and of the same color. The wing covers are small, not : 
‘ 

; 


Fig. 82. 


Platypsylla castoris. 


longer than the prothorax, and the head is nearly semiciroular, A 3 


are very composite, but all in the direction of the Adephage 
and Clavicorn series, though chiefly with the latter. The ™ 
convenient position of the family will probably be between 


equally strongly manifested. It is ‘therefore a very ar 
extraordinary synthetic type, which is almost equally in and 

f place in any linear arrangement of the series with wile® 
allied.” eta: 

As this parasite occurs on our native beaver we hope our 
uralists will be on the lookout for specimens, and carefully ¢ 
ine the fur of these animals for that purpose. | 


ZOOLOGY. 429 


TORNARIA NOT A LARVAL STARFISH, BUT THE YOUNG OF A 
Worm.— Mr. Alexander Agassiz has discovered that the Tornaria, 
an immature microscopic floating animal, which he in common with 


_ other naturalists had thought to be a young starfish, is really a 


young worm. The parent is a remarkable worm, found at different 
points on our coast and that of Europe, burrowing in sand, and 
described by the celebrated Italian zoologist Delle Chiaje. The 
history of Balanoglossus as given by Agassiz “ while showing 
great analogy between the development of Echinoderms and the 
Nemertian worms, by no means proves the identity of type of the 
Echinoderms and Annuloids. It is undoubtedly the strongest case 
known which could be taken to prove their identity. But when we 
come carefully to analyze the anatomy of true Echinoderm larve, 
and compare it with that of Tornaria, we find that we leave as 
wide a gulf as ever between the structure of the Echinoderms and 
that of the Annuloids.” Now the young of certain Echinoderms 
have a form very similar to larval worms. On this chiefly Prof. 
Huxley, misled by the names given by J. Miller to some of these 
larvee has revived the old opinion of Oken, and associated the 
Echinoderms with the Articulates; but as he based his opinion 
entirely upon the figures of Miller, and not upon original inves- 
tigations, his conclusions, which have been adopted by the ma- 
jority of English naturalists, do not appear to Mr. Agassiz as 
tenable. ‘The hypothetical form to which Huxley reduces these 
larvæ, to make his comparisons and to draw his inferences, is one 
which has never been observed, and as far as we now know does 
not exist.” His paper, with many beautiful figures, appears in the 
“Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.” 


Tue Wuire-neckep Raven. — This bird is seldom seen in the 
Mountains at any period of the year, but during winter it is very 
Common in the vicinity of Denver. As it is rarely molested, it 

s become so tame that it enters the gardens and streets in the 
quieter portions of the city and perches on the trees and fences, 
regarding the passers-by with more curiosity than fear. Like the 
eastern crow it is social in its habits, going in small parties of 
two or three up to ten or twenty ; and in its general actions and 
appearance it closely resembles that bird. Its croak is thinner 
and shriller than that of C. corax, which is here seldom, if ever, 

und. On clear, warm afternoons during winter and early spring, 


430 ZOOLOGY. 


the white-necked raven sometimes ascends to considerable hei 
and sails in slow, wide circles somewhat like the Dusen a 


considerable distance eastward over the plains. I have seen it at 
least a hundred miles east of Denver. I venture to suggest that 
its range will be found to join that of C. Americanus on the east, ; 
and that of C. corax on the north, being thus the southwestern 
representative of the genus. —T. Martin Tripre, Denver, Col. 


RELATION OF THE C@LENTERATES AND EcrrNoperms.—At the 
close of an important paper entitled “ Studies on the Devel 
of the Meduse and Siphonophora” in a late number of Siebold 
and Keelliker’s Zeitschrift Metschnikoff, a Russian zoologist, tH 
expresses his views as to the affinities of the Ceelenterates and 
Echinoderms drawn from a study of the larvae of the two 

“In conclusion I will again affirm that I regard the Ceelente | 
and Echinoderms as two different types, but which have so] 
relatives on both sides, that they should always be placed next 
each other in the system. I think that between the two there 
the same grade of similarity as between the higher worms (q i 
dinea, Gephyrea and Annelides) and the Arthropods (Insects a 
Crustacea). In order to be assured of this, we must obse.: 
bearings of embryological facts, and in regard to the Ceelentel 4 
and Echinoderms not forgot, that the body-cavity and peri 
cavity represent two different things.” This is opposed e 
view which Huxley and some German naturalists entertain 
the affinities of the Echinoderms, placing them next 
and breaking up the type of radiates (which view is f 
just at present in Europe ;) and confirmatory of the view 
who adhere to the Cuvierian type of Radiates. 


New Carsonitrerovs Myriopops rrom Nova Sooma. 
will be remembered that Dr. J. W. Dawson of Montreal | 
ered the remains of a galley worm or millepede in a $ 
Sigillaria, which flourished during the early part ° of t 
period of Nova Scotia. It occurred with a land shell, and 


(were the an»si ni 


CR Ree ls 


ZOOLOGY. 431 


same precious stump occurred the fragments of six-footed insects 
preserved in the coprolites of the lizards that once ran up and 
down those trees. The fragments of galley worms were described 
by Dawson under the name of Xylobius Sigillariæ. On subject- 
ing them to farther examination, Mr. Scudder finds there were in 
reality, portions of three other species of Xylobius, and a species 
of a new genus, which he also thinks should form the type of a 
new family. It is described in the “ Memoirs of the Boston 
Society of Natural History,” under the name of Archiulus xylobi- 
oides, and the family is called Archiulide. The insects found with 

em, but in too small pieces to be recognizable, belonged to the 
Orthoptera and Neuroptera. 


Tue Discovery or THE ORIGIN OF THE STING OF THE BEE.— 
In Siebold and Kölliker’s “ Journal of Scientific Zoology” for July, 
1872, containing an account of the Proceedings of the Zoological 
division of the 3rd meeting of the Russian Association of Nat- 
uralists, at Kiew, is an abstract of a paper by Ouljanin on the 
development of the sting of the bee. The author describes but 
two pairs of imaginal disks, while three were discovered and de- 
scribed by the undersigned in 1866. The author homologizes the 
elements of the sting with the feet, as had already been done by 
me in 1871. Soon afterwards Dr. C. Kraepelin published an elab- 
Orate article on the structure, mechanism and developmental 
history of the sting of the bee. In speaking of the origin of the 
sting (p. 320, vol. 23, 1873), he only refers to Ganin’s observa- 
tions made in vol. 19, of the same journal (1869). Dr. Kraepelin 
Seems to have overlooked the writers’ papers* on the origin of 
the sting of the bee and ovipositor of other insects (Æschna and 
i Agrion) published in 1866 and 1868, the observations and draw- 
_ Ings having been made in 1863.— A. S. PACKARD, Jr. 


DEEP SEA DREDGINGS IN THE GULF or St. Lawrence.— Mr. 
J. F. Whiteaves records in the March number of the ‘* American 


* Observations on the Development and Position of the Hymenoptera, with notes on 
the Morphology of Insects, Proceedings Boston Society N. H., published May, 1866. 
OP the Structure of the Ovipositor and Homologous parts in the male Insect. 
y iety, N. H. vol. xi, published in 1868. Guide to the Study of 

pects, 1869, pp. 14, 536. Embryological Studies on Diplax, Perithemis, and the 
Thysanurous genus Isotoma. Memoirs Peabody Academy of Science, 1871, p. 20. 
Poduridæ is! logized with a pair of blades of the ovipositor 

ith the spi ts of spi- 


3 


— SE the hee, cto. andik iposit led as} ' 
ders and ab dominal feet of myriopods. 


5 


432 ZOOLOGY. 


Journal of Science” the occurrence of the following recent addi- — 
tions to the American fauna, in depths of from 200 to 220 fathoms; 
of sponges, Trichostemma hemisphericum M. Sars, and Cladorhiza 
abyssicola M. Sars, with Hyalonema longissimum ; of echinoderms, 
Ophioscolex glacialis; of polyzoa, Flustra abyssicola G. O. Sars, 
and Escharella palmata Sars; of shells, Portlandia lucida, Pa 
frigida, Cylichna umbilicata and Cerithiopsis costulata ; of crus- 
tacea, Calocaris MacAndree Bell, Munidopsis curvirostra, a new 
genus and species, allied to Munida; Pseudomma roseum G. 0. 
Sars, Halirages fulvocinetus Boeck, Munnopsis typica Sars, and | 
several other species. Numerous interesting species, many ie 
them new to the American coast, were also dredged in shallower 
water, on the Orphan and Bradelle Banks, and at the entrance of — 
Gaspé Bay. Among the crustacea from these localities were 
Leucon nasicus Kroyer, Acanthostephia Malmgreni Bock, Ædiceros 
lynceus, and Aceros phyllonyx Boeck. 


3 


Tue Mouru Parts or rae Dracos Fry.—An important article — 
on the mouth parts of the dragon fly, Perlæ and allied forms (Or- 
thoptera amphibiotica), is published by Dr. Gerstaecker, in the i 
memorial volume of the Centennial Celebration of the Society of a 
the Friends of Science in Berlin, 1873. The author describes and 
figures the palpi of the dragon flies. They possess 4 one-joint e 
maxillary palpus, and 2-jointed labial palpus, which are not how: a 
ever in the maxillæ palpiform, but constitute a simple lobe (gales ' 
of Burmeister, Erichson and Ratzburg). In Hagen’s “Sy nopsisof = 
Neuroptera of North America” (1861) it is stated «mouth mine 
furnished with palpi.” This statement, which is morphologically 
inexact, was copied in the “Guide to the Study of Insects.” w 
will be corrected in the fifth edition of the latter, as it was UN 
tunately too late to correct the statement in the fourth editio 
now passing through the press, except in a few words in the pr 


face.—A. S. P o 

A New Tyre or Snaxes.—I have recently described 4 ere : 
from the Amazonian region of Peru, in which the spines a ie 
dorsal vertebra are so dilated at the summit as to present & S% 
of bony plates along the middle line of the back, homo% 
with the central pieces of the shield of a tortoise. The § 
presented other peculiarities and was called Genhosteus 
It was discovered by Prof. James Orton.—E. D. C. 


ZOOLOGY. 433 


NOTICE or A SPECIES OF TERN NEW TO THE ATLANTIC COAST OF 
Norra America.— During the last summer Mr. Franklin Benner 
of New York, while a member of Prof. Baird’s Fish Commission 
party at Peak’s Island, Portland Harbor, Maine, obtained a fine 
specimen of a species of tern which approaches very near to the 
characters of the Sterna longipennis Nordmann, or Sterna Pikei 
Lawrence, although it differs in several particulars from the de- 
scriptions of this species. The specimen was presented by Mr. 
Benner to the National Museum, in which it is numbered 64,394. 
It may be described as follows :— 

Portland Harbor, Me., July; 1873. Adult, summer plumage? : 
head, neck, lower part of the rump, upper tail coverts, tail and 
entire lower parts snow white, the former with a black patch cov- 
ering the occipital region and surrounding the eye. Mantle, 
Wings, and outer webs of tail feathers pale pearly ash, deeper on 
the primaries, the outer web of the outer quill and that of the outer 
tail feathers, dark slate color. Bill and feet, uniform deep black. 
Wing, 9-60; tail, outer feather, 6-00, middle, 3°40; culmen, 1-15; 
depth of bill at the base, °30; tarsus, ‘55; middle toe, -60. 

Upon consulting the description of S. Pikei Lawr., in the ninth 
volume of the ‘*Pacific Railroad Reports” (page 863), it will be seen 
that that species, or at least the type, has a dark-red bill and 
orange-colored legs. The description of S. longipennis Nordmann 
(in Coues’ Key, p. 320), with which Dr. Coues considers S. Pikei 
to be identical, says the bill of that species is * black, or reddish- 
black, the point often whitish,” but makes no mention of the color 
of the feet. The bird obtained at Portland has both the bill and 
feet uniform deep black. In view of the fact that it seems to cor- 
respond in general dimensions and colors of the plumage with S. 
longipennis, I have concluded to refer it to that species. This 
bird is in adult summer dress, yet the whole forehead and lores 
back to the posterior portion of the crown is immaculate white. 
It is, however, possible that the autumnal plumage was put on pre- 
maturely. In the event this bird should prove distinct from S. 
longipennis, I propose for it the name Sterna Portlandica.—RoBERT 
Rmeway. 


Tue Ruppy Duck.— On the 10th Sept., 1873, I was greatly 
surprised at finding two immature specimens of Erismatura ru- 
: vida hanging up with a bunch of winter and summer yellow 

AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 28 


a 


434 . ZOOLOGY. 


legs in a game stall in Quincy market, Boston. They had been 
sent from Cape Cod, Mass., the day previous, where they were : 
said to have been shot. They were apparently not more than six 
weeks old and as their wings were not fledged enough to fly a rod, 
they undoubtedly must have been hatched in that locality. 

This is indeed a very eastern range for this species to have bred, 
as I believe its usual breeding habitat is in the region of the 
Rocky Mts. Dr. Elliott Coues writes me “I found the ruddy 
duck breeding abundantly in July, in ponds on Turtle Mt., ex- 
actly on the line of the 49th parallel, between Dakota and the — 
British Possessions, about 150 miles west of Pembina (Red River 
of the North). I obtained many newly hatched young ; eggs were 
laid in June. This is the only breeding place of this species, of 
which I am aware by personal investigation.” 

We have a large migration of this duck through eastern Mas- 
sachusetts in October and November, which would indicate that 
they must also breed more directly north of our state, though pos 
sibly many may follow the chain of great lakes and St. Law 
rence River to the Atlantic states. 

I obtained one of the above specimens which I have in my 
cabinet, and I have no reason to doubt that these birds were 
taken on Cape Cod. nie 

I have seen specimens, taken as far east as Niagara Falls in 
May ; these were in high breeding plumage, though I did not | 
learn that any nests had ever been found in that locality.~ — 
Routuven Deane, Cambridge, Mass. 


IRDS NEW TO THE Fauna or Norra Amertca.—The Gyt - 
falcon of Northern Europe and Siberia (Falco gyrfalco Linn.) ha, 
recently been obtained at Kyska Harbor, one of the western Aler 
tians, by Mr. W. H. Dall, exploring that region under the auspices 
of the U. S. Coast Survey. The specimen is an adult fe i 
perfect plumage, obtained June 30, 1873. On the label are the 
remarks “eye brown,” and “ builds.” The measurements of this 
specimen are as follows :— wing, 14°75; tail, 8:00; culmen, * 
tarsus, 2°30; middle toe, 2°05. The ground color of the u 
parts is a very dark blackish plumbeous, the posterior por 
i. e., the rump and upper tail-coverts (and more indistinctly 
scapulars and wing-coverts), transversely barred with light PY” 
plumbeous. The head and neck, however, are entirely uniform 


ZOOLOGY. 435 


plumbeous black, except on the throat. The lower parts are, every- 
where, including the under surface of the wings, marked with 
road transverse bars of plumbeous-black, the two colors about 
equal in amount; the jugulum, and even the throat, with conspic- 
uous, heavy, drop-shaped longitudinal markings of blackish. 

This is the first capture of the Scandinavian, or true, gyrfalcon 
in North America, and the fact that it breeds in the Aleutians 
warrants its introduction into the nearctic fauna. 

Numenius femoralis Peale must also be added to the number 
of North American birds, a fine specimen having been obtained 
May 18, 1869, by Mr. Ferdinand Bischoff, naturalist to the over- 
land telegraph expedition, under the direction of Col. C. S. Bulkley. 
It is now in the National Museum (No. 58,471 2). 

This specimen has been compared with Sandwich Island exam- 
ples, and found to be identical. The species is very different from 
any other North American one. — Rogert RIDGWAY. 


On SOME OF THE EVIDENCES or Lire IN Great SALT LAKE. — 
Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., in his interesting remarks on “ Insects in- 
habiting Great Salt Lake and other Saline or Alkaline Lakes in 
the West,” as given in Dr. Hayden’s last Report, very properly 
expresses the hope that some one will make a careful examination 
of the shores of the lake, and carefully preserve all traces of life 
which he may find there. 

As I examined a portion of the eastern shore of the Great Salt 
Lake, last year, it may be of advantage to naturalists if I mention 
some of the evidences of life which I found there. Of course I 
found the flies, such as are seen by all who visit the lake in sum- 
mer; the shore was almost literally black with them. They rose 
before us, but immediately settled down again upon the sands, 
Close to the lake, when we had passed. Their larve, in the great- 
est abundance, were attached to the bottom, and to submerged 
Sticks, close to the shore; and their pupa skins lay in piles on the 
Shore. The little shrimp-like crustaceans (Artemia fertilis) were 
also seen in great profusion, and these were the most numerous, 
apparently, where the water was the saltest, as in portions partly 
shut off from the lake. 

I collected a large number of shells on the shore of the lake, 
_ but did not interpret them as representing life in the lake; they 
are all, I believe, fresh-water forms. Besides these, I found two 


436 : ZOOLOGY. 


fishes, each about a foot long, on the shore of the lake, which 
without doubt came from the lake itself; but whether they floated — 
there from Lake Utah, or from some one of the rivers that empty 
into the lake, or whether they belong to Great Salt Lake itself, I 
do not know. But I have so much faith in finding fishes and — 
othér lower forms of life in Great Salt Lake itself, that I shall — 
dredge the lake at my earliest opportunity. I observed water — 
birds on the lake in great numbers. — SANBORN ‘Tenney, Williams — 
College, Nov., 1873. a 

[Prof. Tenney has kindly sent to the Academy, portions of one a 
of the fishes mentioned above, and it proved to be a cyprin id a 
altied to the western chubs. It is more probable that this lover of A 
pure water was washed into the lake from some tributary and died ay 
immediately, than that it was ever an inhabitant of the lake. 
There is also a possibility of its having been brought by fish- 7 
catching birds from a distance. It is known that pelicans and. zs 
gulls breed on the island in the lake in immense numbers, and i 
that they take long flights for the purpose of securing their food. — 
—F. W. P.] 


ExcLIsH Sparrows. — The apprehensions I expressed in my 
“Key” lest these birds should molest our native species ag soon 
as they overflowed municipal limits has been verified already. Mr. 
Thomas G. Gentry writes to me :—*“ The sparrows introduced # : 
few years ago in Germantown, Pa., have become quite common in 
the adjoining country, and are driving away the robins, bluebirds 
and sparrows. ‘They increase so rapidly and are so pugnaciom® 
that our smaller native birds are compelled to seek quarters pe 
where.” I did not expect the bad news quite so soon. fiz 
it will not be long before we hear the same complaints from other 
places. I have always been opposed to the introduction 
birds, mainly on this score, but’ also for other reasons. 
no occasion for them in this country; the good they do 1 
stroying certain insects has been overrated. I foresee the 
when it will be deemed advisable to take measures to g% 
the birds, or at least to check their increase.— ELLIOTT C 

A New Grovr or Cyprintp:.—Prof. Cope has recently 
paper in the “ Proceedings of the American Philosophical 50? 
on the Plagopterine, a group of cyprinoid fishes characteris 
the hydrographic basin of western Colorado. The group 


ZOOLOGY. i 437 


from all those related to it in the possession of five osseous spines 
of the ventral fins, and two closely united osseous spines in the 
front of the dorsal. In some of the species the remaining dorsal 
and some pectoral rays are simple and osseous for a large part of 
their length. In the osseous ventral rays this group resembles the 
extinct Saurodontidæ of the cretaceous period. Three genera 
were described, viz : Plagopterus Cope, with beards and no scales : 
Meda Girard, without either beards or scales; and Lepidomeda 
Cope, with scales and no beards. There are four species, three of 
which had been brought to light by the naturalists of Lieut. 
Wheeler’s U. S. Survey, west of the 100th meridian. 


A Hornep ELOTHERIUM.—At a recent meeting of the American 
Philosophical Society I exhibited the greater part of the mandible 
of a large extinct hog of the genus Elotherium which had been 
described in the “ Bulletin of Hayden’s Geological Survey of the 
Territories” as E. ramosum Cope. The animal was as large as 
the Indian rhinoceros, and is peculiar in the possession of two 
Osseous tuberosities on each side, the front pair standing on the 
chin and projecting into horns of much strength.—E. D 


Tur Sxunx.—In the “ American Journal of Science,” for May, 
the Rey. H. C. Hovey has a very important and interesting article 
under the title of Rabies Mephitica, in which it is shown that the 
skunk can no longer be regarded as simply a very disagreeable 
animal, but on the contrary a most dangerous one, and is to 
be classed with the rattlesnake as an enemy to mankind. As 
strange as it may appear, Mr. Hovey has brought forward an array 
of facts. to prove that the skunk is very often affected with a 
disease or perhaps with a natural salivary secretion, that causes 
its bite to be far more dreaded than that of the rattlesnake or of 
a mad dog. As the skunk is a nocturnal animal that steals upon 
his victim without war ning and gives the bite which almost inva- 
riably proves fatal, it is truly to be dreaded ; especially is this the 
case in the western states where the animal is abundant and many 
persons are nightly exposed to its attacks. We advise all to read 
the article and take warning. 

Tue Repueapep WooprecKker IN Marne (Melanerpes erythro- 
cephalus Sw.).—This bird was shot in Orono last summer by a 
Student of the Agricultural College. I have never before seen it in 


438 . ZOOLOGY. a 


Maine, and do not find it noticed in any lists of birds given for 
Maine, to which I have access, except in one published by the 
Portland Society of Natural History. I do not know from that 
list who found the bird, or in what part of the state it occurred, 
The bird may be common in this state but it is new to me in this 
region.— C. H. FERNALD, 


MENOBRANCHUS EDIBLE. —Cayuga Lake (near Ithaca, central 
New York) abounds with the spotted Proteus, Menobranchus 
maculatus (perhaps a variety of M. lateralis, but never striped 
and always spotted). In preparing a paper upon their anatomy 
and embryology, Dr. W. S. Barnard and myself have occasion to 
use them in numbers; and a single fisherman, who sets many 
hooks for fish has brought us a hundred during the past month 
(March) ; he, and all others, apparently regard them as poisonous, 
and are rather averse to touching them ; so far is this from the 
case, that they are absolutely harmless in every way ; and on the . 
5th, Dr. Barnard and myself eat one which was cooked, and found 
it excellent; it is our intention to recommend it as food, but not 
until our investigations are concluded.— Burr G. WILDER. 


New CRUSTACEA OF THE SWEDISH JOSEPHINE EXPEDITION. — 
The Norwegian naturalist G. O. Sars, the son of the celebrated 
zoologist, Professor Michael Sars, has worked up the species of 
Cumacee found by the Josephine expedition. They are little 
shrimp-like Crustaceans, some of which were found at ge 
depths by the naturalists of the Swedish expedition which partice 
pated in the recent deep sea explorations with the dredge. AS 
some of the species new to science are from near the coast O - 
Long Island, the paper will be of interest to our American zool- - 
ogists. The work is done in the most thorough manner, with : 
admirably executed plates. It forms one of the memoirs of the - 
Swedish Academy. 


SPECIAL MODE or DEVELOPMENT OF CERTAIN BaTRAC 
In a letter printed in the “ Revue Scientifique,” No. 37, 
Jules Garnier communicates some remarkable observations als 
have been made by M. Baray on certain Hylodes which ¢ oa 
large numbers in the island of Guadaloupe. These animals the 
widely distributed over the island, being found not only neat” 
sea, but in the higher lands of the interior, and after rain pee 


croak makes the air resonant. The physical features of Gua" 


1873, Me 


ZOOLOGY. 439 


loupe, a voleanic island, the soil of which is composed of tufa, 
pozzuolana and similar material, are so peculiar and so very unfa- 
vorable for the maintenance of tadpole life, which is essentially 
piscine, that M. Baray was led to expect the existence of some 
peculiarities of development. The ova were easily procured, as 
they were everywhere present under moist leaves. No tadpoles 
could be discovered, but many of the frogs were of an extraordi- 
narily minute size. . The eggs were spherical, with a diameter of 
from three to four millimetres, and were each provided with a 
small spheroidal expansion resembling a hernia of the gelatinous 
mass through a pore in the envelope. In the centre of the sphere 
the embryo was visible, lying on a vitelline mass of a dirty 
white color, and having a thin body, a large head and four 
styliform members with a recurved tail. When the egg was 
touched the embryo moved rapidly and changed its position. A 
day later the embryo was perfect, with a tail as long as the body, 
translucent and like that of a tadpole. The limbs immediately 


formed, and at the expiration of a few days little frogs of a dark 


grayish brown color, and without a vestige of a tail, escaped from 
the egg. M. Baray’s observations have established the following 
facts: —1. That this Hylodes Martinicensis commences life by a 
rotatory movement of the future embryo; 2. The fully formed 
embryo performs the rotatory movements more rapidly, but ina 
horizontal plane; 3. The branchiz make their appearance, and 
again vanish sometime afterwards; 4. The larva in the ovum is 
provided with a tail and limbs; 5. The tail of the larva not only 
facilitates the movements of the imprisoned animal, but also aids 
respiration by the numerous and minute vessels which ramify in 
this highly developed appendage; 6. The animal issues from the 
egg in the form which it preserves throughout life. As M. Garnier 
observes, these observations seem to constitute a starting-point 
for a special investigation of great importance, and have a close 
relation to the question of the adaptability of species to surround- 
ing conditions. It may be asked in this case whether the frog has 
been created with special modifications adapting it to live in an 
island destitute of marshes, or has it in course of time acquired a 
new mode of development enabling it to survive under the excep- 
tional conditions under which it has been placed. — The Academy. 


Tue PALEONTOLOGICAL History OF TRILOBITES, ETC., AS OP- 
POSED BY BARRANDE, TO THE EVOLUTION Tueory. — During the 


440 ZOOLOGY. 


year past, another large quarto volume on the trilobites, by M. 
Barrande, the distinguished paleontologist, has appeared, illus- 
trated with numerous plates. The author strongly opposes, on 
paleontological grounds, the prevalent evolutional theories. His 
conclusions we present as briefly as possible; they are of great — 
weight as coming from so experienced and able an observer. He — 
thinks that there is no trace of a gradual improvement of the — 
original type whatever in the entire series of the trilobites. In — 
considering the fossil Crustacea of the earliest Silurian formation — 
of Europe, he regards the coexistence of their principal types; — 
such as the Phyllopodes, and the Ostracodes, with the trilobites — 
of the primordial fauna, so well exhibited in England and Sweden, — 
as constituting an important fact. ‘Indeed, among the positive 
facts of paleontology, there are none which would lead us to 
suppose that forms so contrasted, as we have just indicated, 7 
were derived from a common ancestry, by means of filiation or - 
transformation. This descent is thus far a pure creation of the a 
imagination.” Again he says, ‘ The great difference of structure - : 
which separates the type of trilobites and the types of these two 
orders (Ostracodes and Phyllopodes) carries us back to a "e a 
distant age before the Silurian primordial fauna, if we suppos% 
according to theory, that they were all derived from a common 
ancestry. This supposition will oblige us to admit that all “oe 
intermediate forms have invariably disappeared in all the countries ; 
of the globe, and in a long series of anteprimordial deposits, 
unknown up to this day.” That this inexplicable disappearance, 
even if accounted for by future discoveries, would only give win 
still more formidable facts opposed to evolution, Barrande 7 E 
would be the case; and he goes on to say that the trilobites. 
the “second fauna” of the Lower Silurian rocks of Bohemi 
make their first appearance, acçompanied not only by i tye 
of Ostracodes, Primitia and Beyrichia, but also with two w 
Cirripedes, or barnacles, perfectly characterized, and which 3% 
calls Anatifopsis and Plumulites. 4 
Difficulties such as these rise at each step, he adds, in OUE 
ontological studies, and it has resulted from his work, 
instead of establishing zoological connections, and 9 8 
transition between the different types of Silurian Crustacea 
the contrary the contrasts in their conformation were i 
during those primitive ages, than in those posterior, and tà 
suddenness of appearance of each of them, with the compl? 


mi 


o 


GEOLOGY. 441 


of their organization, is irreconcilable with the progressive and 
successive evolution that these theories suppose.” 

e have been unwilling, with the Hozodn Canadense generally 
received as a proof of the existence of life in the Laurentian 
period, to believe that the Bohemian strata, investigated so ably 
by M. Barrande, represent, the lowest platform of life. 

Mr. Henry Hicks in a recent number (Feb. 5) of ‘“ Nature” 
claims that M. Barrande’s list of fossils from the Cambrian forma- 
tion of England is very incomplete. Instead of there being “no 
trace of a trilobite” in the Cambrian formation, Mr. Hicks has 
found sponges, annelides, brachiopods, pteropods, bivalved Crusta- 
ceans and trilobites; among the latter a low genus (Microdiscus) 
with four thoracic segments; the genus has also been found in 
Canada. It seems best, then, for paleontologists to suspend their 

judgment, and await the discovery of new facts before pronouncing 

for or against a primordial fauna more ancient than the Cambrian 
even. Considering what remarkable intermediate types have been 
discovered of late in the Rocky Mountains, the advocates of evo- . 
lution can well afford to wait patiently for a solution of these 
knotty problems in biology. 


Moxocrapn or tue Waars Lice.—A full account of the va- 
rious species of Cyamus, or -so called whale louse, with many fig- 
ures, has been published in the ‘ Memoirs of the Scientific Society 
of Copenhagen” by Dr. Litken. These troublesome crustaceans, 
allied remotely to the common beach-flea, cling by means of their 
long claws to the more protected and softer parts of whales, such as 
the bowhead, the humpbacked, the sperm whales, narwhal and 
grampus, while they have never been found on the Balznoptera, 
or fin back whale. 


GEOLOGY. 

Tue CARBONIFEROUS Formation or SOUTH America.— An ex- 
amination of the rich brachiopod fauna, collected by Prof. Hartt 
and his party on his two late expeditions to the Amazonas, from 
Itaituba, just below the lower falls of the river Tapajos, shows 
th t the carboniferous beds at that place belong to the coal meas- 
ures. 


Associated with a number of new species soon to be described, 
there are found at that locality, Spirifera camerata Morton, 


4492 GEOLOGY. 


S. apima Hall, S. plano-convexa Shumard, Ritziu punctulifera 
Shumard, and a number of other species characteristic of the — 
North American coal measures. 
Mr. Chandless collected carboniferous fossils from the Paranary 
and Amana, branches of the Maué-assir, a tributary of the Ama — 
zonas between the Tapajos and Madeira. The localities are about — 
one hundred miles west of Itaituba, arid the beds and fossils are 
the same as at that place, as is proved by specimens kindly pre 
sented by Mr. Chandless. - . 
A specimen of rock given me by Sr. Gabriel Vierra Lobes of a 
Abydos, and said to have been found on the river Trombetas, con- 
tains some of the same species and is interesting since it indicates 
the occurrence of the same formation on the north side of the a 
Amazonas, where Devonian rocks also occur. dem 
It is interesting to notice in this connection that the Brachiopods 
described by d’ Orbigny, Salter and Zoula from Lake Titicaca, 
Santa Cruz, and Cochabamba in Bolivia are in great part identical 
with the Brazilian and North American coal measure forms, 
` are in all cases more nearly allied to them than to any others. — 
In a small collection of Peruvian fossils forwarded by Profs 
Orton for examination, I have recognized Ritzia punctulifera 
Shumard, and Spirifera camerata Morton (S. Condor @ Orb.), i0 i 
a pebble from the bed of the Pichis River, a branch of the Pachitea, — 
one of the western tributaries of the Ucayali. This is 4 ame : 
locality for the carboniferous situated about six degrees north of 
Lake Titicaca. : 5 
Carboniferous beds in the south of Brazil in the prore 
Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul, are described in +1" 
Hartt’s Geology and Physical Geography of Brazil. Toe aa 
also of coal measure age, containing workable beds of coal wi 
characteristic coal plants. —O. A. DERBY. ‘ 


F 


ANALOGY OF THE TerRTIARY FAUNA oF FRANCE TO THE © Sic 


this epoch. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. MICROSCOPY. 443 


n the contrary, considerations drawn from physical geography, 
and especially the deep sea soundings made by the ‘‘ Challenger,” 
seem to go against the view of intercontinental bridges held by 
some naturalists. We look for a solution of the resemblance of 
the tertiary fauna of Europe and north temperate America, to a 
study of the tertiary lands of Arctic America, Greenland and Spitz- 
bergen, from which the European forms of an American type may 
have emigrated in preglacial times. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 

Tue Pyemres or CENTRAL Arrica.— Dr. Schweinfurth has stud- 
ied and drawn the Akka or pygmy race of Central Africa, whose 
average height is four feet six inches. The statements of Hero- 
dotus and Aristotle are thus fully confirmed. 


MICROSCOPY. 

AMPHIPLEURA PELLUCIDA IN DoTs.— A y objective was made by 
Tolles to my order, and finished on the 12th of March, 1873. The 
angle of aperture as invoiced by Mr. Stodder is 165°. From my 
measurements I think the objective is correctly named by the 
maker. At the extreme open point it is a good sth dry. The 
screw-collar has twelve divisions: by turning it eight divisions it 
is adjusted for uncovered wet, and four divisions remain to adjust 
for cover for immersion work. It works through covering glass of 
about 245th of an inch, but it is better to use rame be or 
mica, to enable the observer to focus through specim 


pellucida is better than I have before seen. Using ordinary day- 
light, Vibriones, Bacteria, etc., are well defined, especially when a 
Kelner eye-piece is used as a condenser. 

With sunlight and the ammonia-sulphate of copper cell, Su- 
rirella gemma yields longitudinal striæ, and, as the direction of the 
light is changed, rows of ‘“ hemispherical bosses” as described by 
Dr. Woodward. 

With the same illumination specimens of Amphipleura pellucida, 
mounted dry, by Norman, were resolved and counted with perfect 
ase and remarkable plainness, the striz being still distinctly visi- 
ble with No. 3, eye-piece, draw-tube extended six inches, and 
Power upward of 10,000 times. 


444 MICROSCOPY. 


It is with hesitation that I remark further that the fth has re- 
solved the lines of Amphipleura pellucida into rows of dots, for — 
the “beaded” structure of the easier test, Surirella gemma, is stil 
doubted by some experienced microscopists. But ‘facts are st : 
born things” and the facts are that with Wenham’s parabola a 
an illuminator the dots are seen, and with either the paraboloid ni 
the Amici prism longitudinal lines much finer than the tran 
ones are brought out. These lines, which I consider genuine, 
count not far from 120,000 to the inch. With a slight change of 
the adjustment their place is occupied by spurious lines countin 
generally about 60,000 to the inch. The longitudinal lines can 
only be seen when the focus is best adjusted for the transve 
striæ. When the transverse lines are examined, they may be 
shown smooth and shining, similar to. the photograph by. 
Woodward in the Naturatisr, but much better. If the mirror 
is then carefully touched a sinuate appearance of the margini A 
the lines suggestive of beading is seen. This appearance can be | 
brought out readily. And finally after the most painstaking 
manipulation, and when without doubt the best work is being ie" 
the separated dots or beads appear. —G. W. MOREHOUSE. 


yg 


On Crrcurarory Movement rw Vavonerta. — Prof. Leidy 
some remarks on the intra-cellular circulation of plants, 28 
plified in the hairs of the mullein, the leaf-cells of bere ip 
The moving streams of protoplasm he likened to am 
ments, and expressed the opinion that they were of te: 
character. In the common alga, Vaucheria, the filaments 
consist of very long cells, comparable to those of Nitella 0 
he had observed an apparent motion of the cell contents 
is somewhat peculiar and, at least, is not generally ment ; 
writers. The wall of the cells is invested on the interior’ 
layer of tenacious protoplasm, containing the thinner liguit 
contents as usual. The parietal protoplasm is closely paved 
green granules, and these appear very slowly but ince 
change their position in relation with one another. | 
so slow that it was a question for some time whether it did 
occur, but it appears sufficiently obvious if observed i 
with the lines of a micrometer, and its existence was C0! n 
several friends whose attention was directed to it— 
Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. 


NOTES. 


We have received the report of the House Committee on Public 
Lands concerning the geographical and geological surveys west of 
the Mississippi. The Committee conclude that the ‘“surveys, so 
far as the same are necessary for military purposes, should be con- 
tinued ; that all other surveys for geographical, geological, topo- 
graphic and scientific purposes, should be conducted under the De- 
partment of the Interior.” The Committee also recommended the 
consolidation of Powell’s with Hayden’s survey, under the Depart- 
ment of the Interior. This has since been done, and Congress 
has voted $75,000 for the continuance of Hayden’s, and $15,000 
for that of Powell’s survey. The continuance of Lieut. Wheeler’s 
survey was previously provided for, $30,000 having, we believe, 
been voted for its expenses. We are glad to see that a step has 
been taken towards a consolidation of the geological and geograph- 
ical surveys of the territories of the west. We believe that the 
scientific interests of the country will be thus furthered, and 
greater unity, economy and scientific accuracy be secured. 

The work should not stop here, and we look forward to a coöp- 
eration between the national government and the states in carry- 
ing on the survey of the states; in fact, it has partially been 
begun. This is extremely necessary in the preparation of a 
general map, geographical and geological, of the United States. 
More than this, it would be, if we mistake not, a wise and econom- 
ical measure to unite the work of the Coast Survey and the 
Signal Bureau with that of the national geographical and geo- 
logical surveys. When this has been brought about, as it may be 
thought necessary to do at a future not far distant, all these 
bureaus might still farther be united under a Science Department, 
equivalent to the Department of State, of War, the Navy or the 
Interior, with the officer at the head a member of the Cabinet, to 
be perhaps appointed by the President under the advice of the 
heads of the respective bureaus of the Science Department ; 
these bureaus to be those of Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, 
Geology and Mining, Meteorology, Geography, Biology and 
Agriculture, Anthropology and Education, etc., etc. 

Such an organization of the scientific forces of the country is 
already foreshadowed in that of the Smithsonian Institution, 

; (445) 


` 


446 NOTES. 


ae 
which, by its intimate relations with the government, and the 7 
national influence it has acquired through the wise and able — 
administration of its affairs, has become even now almost in part - 
the equivalent of a government department. ie 

It is suggested that at the annual meetings of our scientific and 
learned bodies, some action be taken towards directing public 


ry 


attention to the need of a well organized Department of Science — 
to look after the interests of a broad and generous scientific cul- 
ture, physical, biological and social, or relating to any other 3 
branch of science which may aid in the elevation and improvement " 
of our people. : 


j 

a 

On June 2d the corner-stone of the American Museum of Nat- q 
E 

3 


ural History, in course of erection on Manhattan Square, New i 
York, was laid in presence of an audience numbering 5000 people. 
Scientists were invited from various parts of the country. Rol d 
L. Stuart, President of the Museum Association, delivered "e 
address in behalf of the trustees, which was followed by a — 


acres, and cost when completed $6,000,000. It will be exceedi 
handsome, imposing and convenient. In his address Profi 
Henry said that the great institution they were i i 
would not be complete without provision for regular coup 
free lectures and the presence of a body of scientific investiga 
who should give the results of their studies to the country. 
congratulating the citizens of New York on the brilliant ma" 
prospects of this museum, we indulge the hope that the advice 
Prof. Henry may be promptly carried out, and, that the im 
may, under good management, give towards elevating the ¢ 
of our country be commensurate with the amusement it will | 
to the people of the great city in which it is located. a 
We are glad to learn that the value of applied entomology 
1872, a8 " 


Fitch for revising and completing for publication his survey 
noxious and other insects of the state, the state to have the 
to publish at all times any number of copies of said WO 
own use without further payment. Dr. Fitch’s first report 


NOTES. 447 


eee in 1856 ; fourteen in all have appeared, being published 

“Transactions of New York State Agricultural Society.” 
No oi copies of the last four reports have been published, and 
they are exceedingly difficult to obtain. They are interesting, 
full of fresh observations and deserve the widest circulation. 


Ir appears that for two years the grasshoppers have so devas- 
tated several counties in Minnesota and Iowa that the settlers are 
impoverished, and the earth is now so full of grasshoppers that the 
soil cannot be tilled for at least one year. A bill was passed by 
Congress permitting the settlers in all these counties to abandon 
their land for one year, without prejudice to their rights under the 
preemption laws, so that they may support their families else- 

e. 


We have before us the first number (May) of ‘* Psyche,” the 

organ of the Cambridge Entomological Club, edited by B. P. 

Mann (8vo, pp. 4). This timely issue will, besides the matter 

we may expect to find in such a journal, contain a list of all writ- 

ings upon entomology published in North America from the 

beginning of 1874, with a brief note of the contents of each. 
The subscription price is $1.00. 

Ir is understood that Dr. A. W. Chapman offers his Herbarium 
for sale. It must be rich in specimens of southern plants, and 
especially valuable as containing the types of many species de- 
scribed in his “Flora of the Southern United States.” His 
address is Apalachicola, Florida.—W. M. C. 

Tux Botanical Congress of Europe began its sessions under 
the presidency of Dr. J. D. Hooker at Florence. An interesting 
Teport of the meeting will be found in the London Journal of 
Botany for June and July. 

Taere is a flourishing Natural History Society in New Albany, 
Indiana, with a fine local collection of Indian remains, some of 
much rarity. The collections in other departments are very cred- 
itable. 


Tue well known entomologist G. A. Herrich-Scheeffer, died at 
Ratisbon, Germany, on the 14th of April, aged 75 years. 

Tae distinguished geologist, Professor John Phillips, died at 
Oxford, England, on the 24th of April, aged 73 years. 


448 EXCHANGES. BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Craupe Gay, who wrote a large volume on the history, : 
and botany of Chili, recently died, in his seventy-fourth year 


EXCHANGES. 


HAIR OF DERMESTES.—Larve of Dermestes with test-hairs in situ, for good. 
scopic objects.—R. H. WARD, 53 Fourth Street, Troy, N. Y. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


J oa o eia Species of Goniatidæ. With a list of previoùsly deseribed species. 
ames Ha 

The Science of Homeopathy; or, A Critical and Synthetical Exposition of the Doctrines 
Homeopathic School asics a Hempel, Cloth, $ P Boericke & Tafel. New 
p 


Phtiadeiphia, Baltimore, sats Francisco, 1874, pp. 1 
The Geological and Natural History Survey of Winn The Second Annual 
the Year 1873. “ByN. H. Winchell and S. F, Beckhams, "St “Paul, 1874, pp. 75-219, so 
The Urganization Ss deg ess of the Anderson Scho ss Kd Natural History @ 
Lsiand., ort of th ustees for 1873, ee ridge, 1874, 


E aerd report of thes GERADA of the Museum of paka A Zoology, at Harvard Coll 
ér Together with the Report of the Committee on the Museu m, Jor 1873. Boston, 


Urethrotomy, External and Internal Combined, in Cases of Multiple and Difficult St 
with Remarks on ie Poise Calibre. By p prre N. One. New York, vhs Bree 
in of B a and Corals of the Lower Helderberg Group. By James Ha ; 
on the i and the Ichthyology of Utah. By Edward D. pre re 
o 

Catalogue of the Coleoptera of Mt, Washington, N. H. By E.P. Austin; With De: 
New Species, by J. L. LeCoute. "Boston. svo, ; j 


Bir rds of Western nea Fe ge ern Mex Based upon Collections made by Ad. 
J, Zantus and Ferd, Bischoff. E E tena, Boston. 4to. ; 
ear sat of Six Su mala ew Species of American Birds, By George N Lari i 
ve 
Entomological Contributions, III, By J. A. Lintner. Albany, | , 1874. 
The Butterflies of North pfit aka "E Wet Edwards, Second lias Part 
dto, 


Hurd & Houghton, 7s York. May we, 

Catalogue of Flo eon Piants i the Southern Peninsula of Mic higan, with 
Ce ernamir: By N. Lol eman, Kent Scientitic Institute. Miscellaneous Publ 
z 4. 8vo. 

Catalogue of Plants Growing Without Cultivation in the State Af New Jersey, WUR A 
Description of all the e Species of Violet fo fou und there . By Oliver R. Willis. sg 5 
& Co. ja) Publishers. New York, 157 Ge 

tomy of the Invertebrata. By Ci n. V. Siebold. Translated from the 
apene and Notes by Waldo L. Burnett. James Caiupbell, Publisher, Boston. 


nual Report on the Novi Beneficial, and other Insects of the 
made to ihe State Board of Agriculture, pursuant t Appropriation for this purp 
Leg —, od State. By Charles V. Riley. Jefferson City, 187 pared 
rving the Transit of Venus, December 8-9, 1874. Pre 
rye author ize Congres ar gonm tor ve re tt 
ce) e Hon, Secretary of ay ashington Lo. Meriam. 
Geographical and rical 4 brakes end | Surveys West of the = 
onumical Report. By Lieut. i i M. Wheeler. Washington. 


On the Transformations of the Common House Fly, with Notes on Ained | 
Packard, jr. 1874, pp. 14. vo. With a plate, i 
f ae Gre of New North American Phalenide and Phyllopoda. By A.S. 


The Influence of Climate and Topograp r Trees. By J. G. Cooper. 8Y 
sg of the ge "ye owen 5 Anton March 16, ysa, Ban Fr 
a Bean, By J. G. Cooper, From the Scirnlitic Press. 


1871, Pickman 
Psyc. rey gem of th th he Cambri ridge Entomological Club, Edited by B. rye: 
No. i, Cambridge, Mass., Hayy IETEN April 
Observer of Nature. Vol. 1, No. 2. PEEN n Kansas, bg! hg ay, Ta Fe 
Les Cristulloides Complexes a Aa “Par Leopo es Sv 
Essai p maha toad ange Aad des ¢ enna. Par Leopold Huzo; f 
la Geometrie Deseriptive des Cristailvides. Par 


; Fa-t-il on oe Naturelles Distinctes a la Surface deu Globe, panes eT ek 
ployer Le ere. a “for et les limiter? Extrait des Annales de 
Urgan der Belgique, Par A, selten — pdt bacon = oN, ad Urgesehichte 
ef p; loyie 
Amiropologie er, Belt hirit roy tseniehte and ae nschen. 
eg u Soim tei vi 
Schriften der der Naturforse henden O aloha tn’ Dansig. Meue Folge- 
Danzig, 1972 SVO. 


Da e a 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vol. VIII. — AUGUST, 1874. — No. 8. 
eces DTD o 


NOTES ON THE FLORA OF SOUTHERN FLORIDA. 


BY FREDERICK BRENDEL. 
a 


Is the flora of Southern Florida and the Keys in reality North 
American or West Indian? One of the greatest authorities in 
botanical geography, Prof. Grisebach, in his latest work upon the 
distribution of plants (“ Vegetation der Erde,” 2, p. 340), as also 
in a previous one (“Die Geographische Verbreitung der Pflanzen 
West Indiens,” pp. 19 and 20), favors the former opinion. 

He says:—‘ The character of the vegetation of Florida is in 
general identical with that of Georgia and Carolina. But eight 
species of West Indian woody plants occur in Florida, and but six 
in Key West.* When the Northern Bahamas above 27° N. Lati- 
tude shall be explored it is probable that the difference between 
them and the neighboring main-land, but sixty-five English miles 
distant, will be yet more evident. This difference is not due to 
climate, nor yet to geological structure, for as the coast of Florida 
is surrounded by coral reefs, so has the archipelago of the Bahamas 
been built up by the same means. Why is it then that the vege- 
tation of the West Indies has possession of these islands and not 
of the equally near and similarly formed Keys of Florida? Even 
the few plants which are common to both occur also for the most 


. *In Florida, two Coccolobe, Pithecolobium Unguiscati, Guettardia elliptica, Psycho- 
bria lanceo » Myrsine læta, Jacquinia armillaris and Tournefortia gnapulodes ; in Key 
West, etc sanctum, Schafferia frutescens, Passiflora angustifolia, Exostemma 
Caribeum. . 
— 


according to Act of Congress, in the aw 1874, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF 
Summa in the he Office of the Librarian of Oon ongress, at Washington. 
AMER. es, VOL. VII. 29 (449) 


450 NOTES ON THE FLORA OF SOUTHERN FLORIDA. 


part on the continental coast of the Gulf, and may as probably ” 
have reached the Keys from there as from Cuba. The most obvi- 
ous reason is found in the fact that the Bahamas are united with’ 
the Greater Antilles by innumerable islands and shoals, while on 
the contrary Florida and the Keys are separated from them by the 
Gulf Stream—a proof that ocean currents do not always serve to 
connect floral regions but at times aid in preserving the limits be- 
tween creations originally distinct.” Now to these suggestions 
some objections may be made. When we see the habitat of many 
hundred of species indicated in the books by the phrases “ New 
England to Florida,” “ S. Carolina to Florida,” etc., it seems evi- 
dent that the flora of Florida belongs to that of North America. 
But “Florida” in most of these cases means Northern Florida. 
Southern Florida, from Tampa Bay southward, has been explored 
only at solitary points upon the coast by a few botanists, who 
have taken notice only of the more conspicuous and chiefly woody 
plants. It is not improbable that when the vegetation of this 
region is better known it will prove to be not so different from 
that of the Northern Bahamas as Prof. Grisebach now supposes. 
Geological causes cannot be excluded in botanico-geographical > 
investigations where recent causes are insufficient to explain facts. ; 
he coral formation of Southern Florida—if it be true that the 
lyps cannot live but in a certain depth of water—indicates oe 
slow subsidence of the land, and this movement may possibly — 
have preceded the upraising of the tertiary Atlantic and Gulf 
coast of the Southern States and the existence of the Gulf Stream. 
Between Bemini Point and Cape Florida the depth of the streat 
is considerably less than at any other point, and this may hee 
e line of connection between Florida and a tropic terk 
tory eastward, of which the Bahamas are the remnants. 
more probable that the “few” woody plants enumerated 
bach have immigrated across the channel or made the long @ 
of the shores of the Gulf, than that they are the residue of 40M 
larger number of plants common to Florida and the Bahamas- 
But is the number of these plants indeed so small? Dr. 
man enumerates in his “ Flora of the Southern States” no 
231 species which do not extend northward of Tampa Ba, 
these 16 may be added from other sources,* making 24 


*From DeCandolle’s Prodromus, Hyptis spicata, Croton humilis and lit 
rothamnta Fondiri, and Zante Pioridans m Bot. Mex. Bound: 


and pumila ; from Bot. 


l: 
À 
d 
( 


; Á $y 


ee L A Tee gee I ET S f 


Es SN EEE a S ia 


NOTES ON THE FLORA OF SOUTHERN FLORIDA. 451 


(136 woody, 83 perennial, and 28 monocarpic), of which 187 are 
common to the West Indian Islands and partly to South America 
and (31) to Mexico, 23 to Mexico only, and 37 known as yet only 
from Southern Florida. 

If it be conceded that the Gulf Stream is an insurmountable 
obstacle to immediate immigration from the West Indies, and that 
any plant from there must have made the circuit of the Gulf, why 
is it that the majority of these emigrants have not settled in 
Mexico, as should have been expected from the greater chances 
that evidently exist in favor of that country. The inference is 
reasonable that the 156 species of Southern Florida which are 
common only to regions lying southward and not to Mexico have 
for the most part not been transmitted by the waters of the Gulf, 
and that we must recur to other than the recent means of migra- 
tion. 

The flora of Northern Florida, including 58 widely distributed 

Species which are not expressly noted by Chapman as growing 
there, comprises 1511 species of vascular plants, of which 875 
occur in the Northern States. Of the remainder 234 extend to 
North Carolina, 113 to South Carolina, 108 to Georgia, 3 to Ten- 
nessee, and 53 only westward. Of all these only 15 are men- 
tioned expressly as occurring in Southern Florida. Of the 125 
which are known only from Florida 9 have been found in the 
Southern part of the State. There are 1487 Floridan species 
which are not known as belonging to Southern Florida, or which 
at least are not so reported in published documents. 
. It may further be remarked that the above 247 southern species 
belong to 170 genera, of which 102 with 131 species are not 
represented in Northern Florida, and of these again 26 genera 
with 30 species belong to orders which are not found in other 
parts of the eastern United States. Comparing, moreover, the 
woody, perennial and monocarpic species, we find the numbers 
quite disproportionate and must suspect that a great number of 
perennials, particularly Cyperaceæ and grasses in the interior are 
unknown. 

From all these facts we conclude that the flora of Southern 
Florida is, so far as known, not to be considered a part of the 


Heliotropium polys stachyum and Sarcostemma clausum; from Nuttall’s Sylva, Acacia 
es sepuas egga Cordia speciosa Pay orn a, and gene 
Pervifolia; and from Grisebach, Abutilon permolle, Desmodium tortuosum and Crinu 

m A t). 


452 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 


North American flora, but a link between it and that of the West 
Indies, and that a portion of those species which are peculiar to 
the northern portions of the State, and the immediately adjacent — 
region, may have been derived from the south. 7 


THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS : 
COLEOPTERA. y 


BY JOHN L. LECONTE, M.D. 


OTIORHYNCHIDÆ. : 
Is a large number of genera* of Rhynchophora, at the front part 
of the mandibles, may be seen a round or oval depression, having 
the appearance of a scar, and which served, during the pupa stage, : 
and for the early part of the imago life, as an attachment for § 
deciduous piece, of a conical and usually slender form. Mi 3 
times specimens had occurred in which one or both of these pieces 
were still adherent, and the explanations thereof were varied | 
incorrect.t The opinion of Lacordaire seems to be quite satisfac- 
tory, that they are probably of service in enabling the insect i 
cut its way out from the nest or cell in which the transformat 
takes place. ; | ii 
While recognizing the frequent occurrence of this sing™ 
structure, altogether without parallel among other insects, it does 
not seem to have occurred to Lacordaire, that we have hor ; 
character of great importance for systematic purpose, and 
after removing the large mass of such genera, the normal pa 
Curculionidæ would be much more amenable to classification. 
fact I think it may be shown that the confusion and inde 
of the first part of the classification of Lacordaire is mainly 
to the intercalation of genera with scarred mandibles a% 
with simple mandibles. I have therefore placed the former 
separate family, having the following general characters. 
The body affects two forms; in the apterous species ba 
are connate and convex with the humeri rounded ; in the 
species they are more oblong, with the humeri more or less 
* Lacordaire, Gen, Col. vi, 5 (note). 
t Müller, Germar’s Mag. iii, 424. 


re ee ee a ee 


gE Sieh LLENE TE SENS 


a Se eee 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 453 


inent. The beak is alike in both sexes, usually short and broad, 
sometimes longer and thickened or dilated at tip, which is emargi- 
nate; the antennal grooves are either (1) on the upper surface of 
the beak (Otiorhynchus), in which case they are short, and not 
bent downwards; (2) longer, lateral, and directed towards the 
eyes or (3) long or short, directed obliquely below the eyes; they 
always extend nearly to the apex. The mandibles are short and 
thick, pincer-shaped, with an apical scar, which varies somewhat 
in different genera, to which was attached a deciduous piece also 
of variable form; very long and falcate ee en etc.), long 
and straight (Trigonoscuta), or short and obtuse. The mentum 
is large, and fills the buccal space, except in cane. where 
it is small, leaving the maxillæ exposed. The antenne are ge- 
niculate, with the scape usually very long; the club is pubescent 
and annulated. The eyes are usually rounded, but in several 
genera transverse and pointed below; in the latter case, but also 
in some of the round-eyed genera, the front margin of the pro- 
thorax is dilated forming post-ocular lobes; these lobes are some- 
times very feeble and sometimes indicated only by a marginal row 
of long hairs (vibrisse of Lacordaire). The front coxæ are con- 
tiguous in our genera. The trunk is short, even in the winged 
Species, the epimera of the mesothorax project below the elytra to 
a greater or less extent; the episterna of the metathorax are either 
Covered by the elytra, and indistinct, or narrow and very dis- 
tinct. The hind cox are usually widely separated, the ventral 
Segments are 5 (in one specimen of Nocheles but 4 are visible) ; 
the Ist and 2d larger, connate, 3d and 4th shorter, 5th a little 
longer. The lateral extension of the ventral segments is tolerably 
wide, broader behind; the dorsal segments are membranous, the 
last is corneous, divided in ¢ as usual, but the terminal portion 
apparently more retractile than in genuine Curculionide. The 
legs are moderate, tibie variable in form, tarsi spongy beneath, 
usually dilated, though sometimes (Ophryastes) very slightly so, 
and in Rhigopsis only sparsely ciliate. 

The tribes of this family so far as represented i in our fauna may 
be naturally grouped as follows :— 
A. Side pieces of metathorax concealed, or indistinct; elytra c 

Antennal grooves short, on the upper face of the beak; or a a 


directed towards the eyes, TR rounded, or oe so, prothorax 
not lobed. . OTIORHYNCHINI. 


454 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 


Antennal grooves ona directed below the eyes, which are roni ; 
B: 


prothorax not lo RACHYDERINI. 
ae ee: below os ores anne are pe ao ace trans prone 
or less lo me 
rae i vide | Sa ao a é LEPTOPSIN. 
Humeri angulated. ie RHIGOPSINI. 


B. Side pieces of met setuionss iirów, distinct: 
ra connate, humeri roun 

Eyes rounded, prothorax not or Heh lobed. DYSLOBINI. 

Eyes transverse, prothorax lobed. OPHRY. 

b. Elytra free, humeri distinct, wings perfect; 

E aia large, beak short e 
Antennal grooves very even not oblique (eyes usually è : 
Maias and prothorax not lobed); outer s$ a of I 
elytra entire . Be 
Antennal Boyes longer, oblique, o ps stria of aiya : 
ce H 


Il. Minni th ied beak rather iong. . vorit. : 
III. poh small, gula prominent; ‘beak short, antennal i 
ves aei Tm ; eyes transverse, prothorax — 
lobed in front. . EUDIAGOGING 
It will be seen after a short isdn of the characters above — 
mentioned for the definition of the respective tribes, that the gen- 
eral arrangement in this family parallels in a remarkable manner 
that which I have developed in the Tenebrionidæ,* and which has 
been adopted by Dr Horn in his excellent monograph of that fan 
ily, as represented in our fauna.t There is, namely, a higher 
ries, characterized by large mentum and. absence of wings; | p 
tinguished in the former case (Asididæ) by the ventral seg) 
entirely corneous, t in the latter (A) by the indistinct eee! wii 
of the metathorax. Then comes a second series, com 
principal subseries, Blapside in the former instance, with te 
widely extended on the flanks, and Tenebrionids with narrow 
pleurz, the first always apterous, the second mostly winged 
the present family we have (B-a) apterous, and (B-b) 
and in the last, as in the genuine Tenebrionide, additional de 
dational characters in the oral organs, which, in the er 
Endiagogus, have the same general form as in the 
species of the next family. 
It is also worthy of remark that while the European $ 


* Class. Col. N. America 
t Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., xiv, 258, sq i 
„3 The only instance in the Tenebrionide o of this character, OO aantalll 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 455 


very numerous, the representation in North America is but small, 
and that the highest form, Otiorhynchus, exists on this continent 
only as a few species imported with and parasitic on fruit trees, in 
the Atlantic States. 

On examining closely the part of the head adjacent to the eyes, 
a small oblique suture will be seen extending downwards from the 
anterior inferior part; if this fissure is entirely closed, the eye is 
round, as in the majority of the genera; if it is open the eye be- 
comes more or less pointed at that part, and finally assumes the 
transverse, acuminate form observed in Ophryastes, etc. My at- 
tention was first directed to this peculiarity, by observing that in 
the few species of Otiorhynchus now domiciled in the United 
States, there are quite perceptible differences in the form of the 
eyes, which are more rounded in O. arcticus, and more pointed in 
O. ligneus. In Agraphus this fissure is more distinct, and the 
eye is accordingly more pointed. 

The groups of Otiorhynchini are distinguished by the tarsal 
ungues and antenne, as follows: 


Ungues separat 
Antenne long a and slender, . . +. . « . Otiorhynchi. 
Antenne thic F sic wiles ately phir. 
Ungues samen i ana? eet Se ee eee Peritell. 


The tribe Brachyderini as here limited is by no means that de- 
fined by Lacordaire under the same name. I have removed from 
it various groups having the humeri distinct, which will be found 
below and under Tanymecini ; Sitones and its allies do not even 
belong to this family, but will be found among the first Curculion- 
idæ, where the simple mandibles and small mentum entitle them 
to be placed. 

Thus diminished, the tribe, as represented in our fauna, indicates 
but two groups, distinguished by the form of the beak : 

Beak longer than the head, feebly ee Oe antennal grooves com- 
mencing on the upper surface; support f deciduous piece very 
promioenk, eyes coarsely granulated, ST pointed = 


HI. 

Beak scarcely longer than the head, not auriculate, support of decid- 

uous peo very E eyes finely T: ted, subemarginate 

fron GEONOMI. 

The first group is epee + a Sik ieee species 

from Colorado ; the accessory mandibular pieces are short, pyram- 
idal, obtuse, and slightly curved. 


456 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 


The second group is represented by two species on the Atlantic 
slope, belonging to Epicaerus and Graphorinus ; the body is pyri- 
form and robust; the accessory mandibular pieces are not pre 
served in any of my specimens, but the process which supports 
them is longer and more prominent than in any other group. 

With the tribe Leptopsini, and the anomalous Rhigopsis de 
scribed below, the series having the side pieces of the metathorax A 
indistinct or invisible is concluded. They differ essentially by 
the outline of the front margin of the prothorax being sinuous 
when viewed laterally, so as to form a broad lobe for the protec- 
tion of the eyes, when the head is deflexed ; and correlative with 
this the tip of the prosternum is broadly and feebly emarginate. 
The eyes are more or less transverse and pointed below, 
nearly round in Phyxelis. The beak is moderate or rather long, 
sometimes wider at tip, and auriculate (Hylobius? torpidus Let. 
and Tyloderes? gemmatus Lec.,) very much as in Otiorhynchus. 
The antennal grooves are visible from above, but descend obliquely, 
towards the inferior angle of the eye, which however they do not 
reach. Panscopus and Phyxelis represent this tribe in the At- 
lantic States, and also a species which I refer to Strangaliodes; 
the Pacific representatives are the two species above named, Ca 
indicating a new genus. I have a remarkable 9 specimen of E ue 
torpidus, having but 4 ventral segments, one of the two short seg- 
ments being wanting. os 

The second great division of the Otiorhynchide, in which as 
side pieces of the metasternum are well defined, though alwa, 
narrow, may be separated into two principal types, according ° 
the form of the beak. 

In the first, the beak is moderate, or rather long; more OF 
thickened, with the antennal grooves (as in all the preceding 
somewhat visible from above, and either directed towards the 
or obliquely downwards; the prothorax is truncate at bene 
elytra are connate, and the humeri are rounded. The eyes 
in form, and the prothorax is either lobed or not, according, 
eyes are transverse or rounded. 


a 


i 


Apical process of mandibles pyramidal, acute: 
Tibie with a terminal hook, . . . . . >> 
Apical process not prominent : . 
Tibi normal, truncate at tip, . . . . . + Ophryastes: 
ENAN expended at tip... s «+ «.6 4: Trigonoscut®: 


In the second type the beak is flat above, usually 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 457 


sometimes finely carinate, not expanded at tip; the antennal 
grooves are very narrow, parallel at their origin, and usually sud- 
denly deflexed, though sometimes (Phyllobius) very short and 
straight. The eyes vary in form and the prothorax is lobed or 
not. The prothorax is usually bisinuate at base, with the hind 
angles acute, though sometimes truncate. The elytra are usually 
free, with prominent humeri, and the wings well developed: 
though sometimes they are connate, with rounded shoulders. The 
accessory mandibular piece is long and falcate in both, and the 
support at the tip of the mandible is circular and not prominent ; 
characters of great moment when associated with the peculiar form 
of body. 

Two tribes are indicated by a difference in the outer stria of the 
elytra: 

Outer stria of elytra entire. ... +. + «+ PHYLLOBINI. 
Outer stria of elytra abbreviated or interrupted TANYMECINI. 

The first tribe is represented by Pachnæus, and Phyllobius in 
the Atlantic States, and by Scythropus on both slopes of the con- 
tinent. Of these Pachnæus has the eyes transverse, and the pro- 
thorax lobed at the sides in front, while in the others the eyes are 
rounded, and prominent, and the front outline of the prothorax 
is straight. The species are all winged, and the humeral angles 
are obtuse and well defined. The base of the prothorax is trun- 
cate in all the genera except Pachnzus, where it is distinctly bi- 
Sinuate. 

Macrostylus, a Brazilian genus recently found in Texas, is an 
anomalous member of this tribe. The antenna are very long and : 
slender, and the joints of the club seem to be quite separate and 
free. It is of very small size, and has the elytra connate and the 
humeral angles not prominent; the beak is not channelled, but 
otherwise resembles the beak of other members of the, tribe. The 
claws are connate almost to the tip, as in Phyllobius, etc., while 
they are separate in Pachneus. There are thus three groups in- 
dicated x 

Prothorax lobed in front; claws separate: . . - Pachnei. 
Prothorax not lobed; claws connate: 

Humeri prominent, elytra free: - + + + + + Phyllobii. 
Humeri not prominent, elytra connate: . - . Macrostyles. 
The Tanymecini resemble in form the Phyllobiini, but are readily 
distinguished by the outermost stria of the elytra being confluent 


i 


458 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 


with the next about 4 from the base, or abbreviated at that p 
or interrupted, the continuation commencing behind the 
and extending to the tip. The prothorax is bisinuate at 
(Compsa, Brachystylus and Brachythysus), truncate or feebly 
rounded in Tanymecus, Aphrastus, and the genera with connate 
elytra. The eyes are rounded and the prothorax not lobed in " 
of our genera. 7 

Four groups are indicated in our fauna. 


R 
hi 


Elytra connate, humeri not prominent, . . . . Symmathetes. — ie 
Elytra not connate, humeri sree ae 
Claws connate, i . . . » Aphrasti, 
Claws separate; 
Prothorax truncate at base, ......- Tanymeci. 
Prothorax bisinuate at base, . . . . Cyphi. 


Next to this tribe come the Entimini, sale: and brilliant insects 
of South America; the rostrum is stout, not so broad as in the 
last two tribes, deeply emarginate at tip, perpendicular on the 
sides, thickened below at the tip, with the antennal grooves deep 
and oblique; the apical scar of the mandibles is very large, o 
cular and not prominent. The eyes are pointed below, and He 
prothoracic lobes large. The prothorax is comparatively 5 
and bisinuate at base; the elytra at base very broad, with prom- 
inent humeri, gradually narrowed and acute behind; the 0 
most stria is entire. The edge of the elytra and the 
sutures are densely fringed with short hair; the — 
connate, 

Two insects presenting anomalous characters remain to be 
sidered, each indicating a separate tribe. 

The first is found abundantly in Oregon; the beak is two 5 
a half times as long as the head, moderately slendes dilated 
auriculate at tip, which is deeply emarginate; the groo”" 
visible from above, short, broad and deep, ae very i 
tinctly in an oblique direction; the apical scar of the 1 
is large and circular, but not prominent. The eyes arè- 
round, and not prominent. The antenne are slender, 
different in form from those of Otiorhynchus. The prov 
rather small, a little narrowed in front, not lobed, truncate > 
El er at base than the prothorax, humeral angles 
distinct, feebly rounded at the sides, obliquely narrowee © 

— distinct. First ventral — feebly sinuates 

others straight; side pieces of metasternum distinct. Leg 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 459 


der, tibiæ feebly mucronate at tip; tarsi dilated, brush-like be- 
neath, claws separate. 

This species is from 10—11™™ -4—-45 inch long, black, densely 
clothed with small cinereous scales, with lateral and dorsal vitte of 
the prothorax, and scutellum pale yellow; the prothorax is sparsely 
punctured, and the elytra very feebly striate. I have named the 
genus Evotus. It is the Otiorhynchus? naso Lec. (Pac. R. R. 
Expl. and Surveys, p. 56). 

The second of the anomalous forms above mentioned is a small, 
roughly tuberculate insect of the southern part of California, 
found under bark of yucca. It resembles in appearance the Euro- 
pean Rhytirhinus, and shows unmistakable Byrsopide affinities. 
The mentum is, however, similar to that of the other Adelognaths 
of the present family, and the apical scar of the mandibles is dis- 
tinct, flat and subtriangular, though without the central elevation 
usually seen. The tarsi are less dilated than usual, and sparsely 
ciliate beneath; the 3d joint is emarginate rather than bilobed, 
the claws separate. The rostrum is moderate in length, thick, 
irregular, not emarginate at tip, prominent above the eyes; the 
antennal grooves are deep and descend obliquely below the eyes 
which are pointed below, oblique and transverse. The scape of 
the antenne extends nearly to the eyes; the funiculus is longer 
than the scape, 7-jointed as usual, with the 1st and 2d joints a lit- 
tle longer ; club oval, pointed and annulated as usual. Prothorax 
strongly lobed behind the eyes, feebly emarginate beneath, broadly 
flattened (but not excavated) in front of the coxe. e side 
Pieces of the metathorax are not distinct, the 1st and 2d ventral 
Segments are large, connate by a sinuated suture ; 3d and 4th short, 
dth longer than the 3d and 4th united, with a broad impression 
each side near the margin. 


ogini, represented by two species in‘ the southern Atlantic States. 
The form resembles somewhat the Tanymecini, but is rather 
stouter and more convex; the color is black adorned with narrow 
stripes and bands of metallic scales. 


460 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTER 


The beak is short and stout, channelled above, feebly emagi 
at tip, with the antennal grooves narrow and deep, running ob- 
eee below the, eyes, which are transverse and pointed below. 

mandibular scar is small and triangular, not prominent. I 
on not seen the deciduous piece, but suppose it to be small, short 
and pyramidal. The mentum is retracted leaving a deep cavity, 
from the hind margin of which projects the gula in a small emar- 
ginate prominence, much like the mentum-tooth in certain Cara 
bide. The prothorax is broadly rounded at base, with the hind — 

angles nearly rectangular; the postocular lobes are large, and t 
front margin of the prosternum is nearly squarely truncate, 80 
to make a rounded right angle with the outline of the postocular 
lobe. The front coxe are contiguous, the side pieces of the mi 
thorax narrow, distinct ; the ventral segments 1st, 2d and 5th long, 
3d and 4th short; 1st and 2d sutures feebly sinuate, but in reverse 
directions. Legs moderate, tibiæ with a small terminal spur 
the inner side ; tarsi with 3d joint broadly bilobed, claws is 
imate, but not connate. 

A singularly isolated type, seeming to have no relations 
any other in our fauna. 


bas 3 Fe 


CURCULIONIDZ. 

After thus separating the families above defined, there 

a vast complex of genera having the sexual ha of 
series, the antenne geniculate (with rare exceptions), the 
always oval pointed and annulated, uniformly pubescent ; 
mandibles without deciduous piece, usually 3-toothed at ti 
is perpendicular. The mentum is always small or moderate 
not concealing the maxilla, and inserted upon a more OF 
gated gular peduncle. The beak varies in form, as will be 
out under the respective tribes; the antennal grooves ra 
tend to the front extremity of the beak (as in all the m 
of Otiorhynchide), but commence at a greater or less 
fye the tip (except in Sitonini). The front cox® m 
as or separated; the side pieces of the mets 

psn distinct : the pygidium is either covered by the 


The following principal divisions may be established : 3 


A. Antennal grooves extending to the base of the mandibles, £ 
duncle broad, not emarginate ; (Brachyrhyncht). 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 461 


Beak short, broad, gular margin not prominent, eyes round. 


SITONINI, 
Beak short, very thick, buccal cavity deep. BaTHYRINI. 
Beak ee long, gular margin fee i AART and me 
tum retracted. ALOPHINI. 
B. Antennal eta nót E S to the ta of the käod ibles 
A. Gular peduncle broad truncate, mandibles BE at tip ADEDE 
not geniculate, claws toothed); . . ¿eo w ITHYCERINL 
B. Gular peduncle long: (Mecorhynchi). 


A careful analysis of the tribes composing the last division 
(Mecorhynchi) would extend this memoir to an unsuitable length 
for my present purpose, and must be reserved for the concluding 
part of my work on classification,* now in preparation. A few 
remarks upon the other four tribes, which might even be regarded 
as subfamilies, will however not be out of place. The types are 
well known with the exception of the second, Bathyrini, founded 
upon a very remarkable species from Arizona and Texas, which 
resembles somewhat a Cratoparis, of the family Anthribide; a 
resemblance increased by the hind angles of the prothorax in g 
being expanded and flattened, so as to be as wide as the base of 
the elytra. The beak is not longer than the head, deeply con- 
stricted at base beneath, then suddenly expanded so as to be as 
broad as long, very thick, strongly channelled and deeply emar- 
ginate above. The antennal grooves are deep, extending to 
the base of the mandibles and flexed below the eyes, which are 
pointed below; the scape of the antennz extends as far as the 
eye; the 1st joint of the funiculus is § as long as the scape; the 
2d is about } as long as the Ist; the 3d-—7th nearly equal in 
length, gradually a little thicker ; club pubescent, oval, — 
as usual. The buccal cavity is very deep, and square. The 
peduncle is not visible, and the mentum small, narrow, and so 
in the cavity ; the mandibles are strong, their base very broad and 
transverse, the tip (so far as I can see) feebly emarginate. The 
prothorax is lobed behind the eyes, and the prosternum deeply, 
almost semicircularly, emarginate in front. The front cox are 
Contiguous ; the side pieces of the metasternum narrow ; the sides 
of the elytra narrowly emarginate behind the humeri, scutellum 

verse, wider behind; the sutures of the ventral segments are 
Straight, and the segments less unequal than usual, the 3d and 4th 


* Classification shes the Coleoptera of N. America. Smithsonian Institution Miscell. 
Publications. 


462 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. — 


together being longer than the others separately. The legs are j: 
short, the tibiæ truncate, feebly mucronate at tip, and with broad A 
distinct corbeilles ; the tarsi are broadly dilated, 3d joint deeply bi- — 


brown scales, varied on the elytra with patches of paler cinereous, ; 
and with scattered darker scales; of these the most conspicuous 
is a lateral transverse spot in front of the middle ; a larger indis- | 
tinct apical blotch is marked with an oblique brownish line; the 
stria are represented by ten rows of quadrate punctures ; the outer 
one not abbreviated nor confluent ; scutellum transverse, cinereous — 
scaly. Length 4—6™™ oo 
Arizona, Dr. Webb; Texas, Dr. Horn. The specimen from ‘ 
Arizona has the thorax at base as wide as the elytra, the hind w 
gles being expanded, flattened and acute, with the side margin - 
acute ; the sides in front of the angles are straight and oblique. 
Four specimens from Texas, which I considered as females, have — 
the prothorax rounded on the sides, narrower in front, scarcely : 
subsinuate at base, which is not as wide as the elytra, with the : 
hind angles not prominent, but slightly rounded. The general 
form is therefore as in Eudiagogus. I have seen a nearly allied 
species from the Argentine Republic. eee 
The Sitonini contain small species greatly resembling in form : 
Tanymecus of the family Otiorhynchidz, but differing entirely by : 
the mentum being small, and the maxille exposed ; the gular p% 
duncle is short and broad, but quite distinct, and is trune 
the front margin. The mandibles are emarginate at tip, and Bo 
no apical scar for the attachment of the deciduous piece W 
characteristic of the preceding family. The beak is short, Dm 
flat and channelled above, emarginate at tip; the antennal 
extend to the base of the mandibles; they are deep and : 
fined, and flexed obliquely downwards below the eyes; the 
are rounded; the front margin of the prothorax is not lo 
not emarginate beneath. The front coxæ are contiguous, ™ 
pieces of the metathorax are narrow and separate ; the v : 
segments less unequal than usual, the suture between the 1st) 
2d sinuated. The tibiæ are truncate at tip, the tarsi di 
brushlike beneath, the claws separate and simple. : 
base are much wider than the prothorax, with the humeri 
and prominent; wings developed in all of our species. 


Ẹ 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 463 


The tribe Alophini retains a remnant of a form seen otherwise 
only in the preceding family; the elytra are convex, with the 
humeri not prominent and the prothorax is comparatively small. 
The prominence of the gular margin easily distinguishes it from 
all other tribes. The tibiz are slightly mucronate at the inner 
angle of the tip, and the terminal surface is well defined, not lat- 
eral. The apical margin of the mandibles is curved, sharp and 
prominent, thus making the outer face broad and flat, with a well 
defined margin. Liophlous inquinatus Mann, from Alaska, be- 
longs to this tribe, and seems scarcely different from Alophus, 
except by the shorter and stouter funiculus. Lepidophorus lin- 
eaticollis on the other hand has an entirely different oral structure, 
and is apparently allied to Phytonomus, ete. 

Ithycerus is a completely isolated form, having no relation with 


other genera. As pointed out y Dr. Horn,* the remark of Prof. 


Lacordaire, that the ĝ has 6 ventral segments, is an erroneous 
interpretation of the very convex last dorsal segment, which can 
be seen from beneath. 

BRENTHIDZ. 

The species of this family are remarkable for the very elongate 
form, and by the great sexual differences which sometimes occur in 
the mouth organs. In our own Eupsalis minuta for instance, the 
beak of the male is broad, short and flat, with large prominent 
mandibles, while in the female the beak is long and slender, with 
very small mandibles. But two genera occur in our fauna; Eup- 
Salis on the Atlantic slope from Canada to Texas, and Brenthus 
in Lower California. 3 

The mouth is not constructed on the same plan as that of the 
long beaked Curculionids ; the gular peduncle is wanting, and the 
mentum varies in form according to the shape of the buccal open- 
ing, which it nearly fills, thus concealing the maxille. The family 
is also easily known by the antenne being 11- jointed, not clavate 
nor geniculate, nearly moniliform in Eupsalis, somewhat com- 
Pressed and broader externally in Brenthus. 

The eyes are rounded, the lenses are covered with a perfectly 
Smooth membrane, and are consequently not granulated, the front 
Coxe are separated by the prosternum ; the metasternum is long, 
and the side pieces are distinct and very narrow. The Ist and 2d 
rie ih AE aussie ot OE 


* Proc, Am. Phil. Soc. 1873, 447. 


464 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 


ventral segments are very long, and closely connate; 3d and 4th 
short, 5th as long as the two preceding united. The tibiæ are — 
truncate at tip, the front ones feebly unguiculate, and with the 
inner margin of the tip concave ; tarsi dilated, brushlike beneath, ' 
3d joint bilobed in our genera, 4th joint long, claws simple sa 
ate; the tarsi are less dilated in some exotic genera. 

The dorsal segments are arranged exactly as in true Cureulion 
ide ; they are all membranous except the last, which is corneous: 
and convex in Q, divided in g : the sides of the ventral segments 
are only narrowly prolonged upwards, and are imbricated ; the last _ 
spiracle is large and uncovered. The elytra have on the inner 
side the usual lateral fold, but instead of becoming obsolete near 
the tip, it diverges strongly from the margin and is continued i 
quite to the suture, fitting to the lateral edge of the last ventral 
segments, thus showing an approach to the peculiar modification ; 
afterwards seen in Scolytide. : 

Some of the most curious characters in the Rhynchophorous sê- _ 
ries occur in this fam mily. Among them I may instance Taph- j 
roderus distortus Westwood, from Natal, remarkable by a : 
enormous development of the left mandible; an d Calodromus 
Mellyi Guerin, from India, in which the 1st joint of ee hin tasi 
is as long as the whole body. A 


Series III. HETEROGASTRA. 

I have named this series from the fact, that although the abdom- 
inal segments are alike in both sexes, and the ventrals also ai 
longed upwards at the sides, fitting into a groove on the inner 1407 
of the elytra, as in the Allogastrous series, yet the best characters 


Nothing distinctive can be predicated of the series as a War 
except the similar pygidium in both sexes, and the prolong? 
upwards of the ventral segments to fit in the elytral goer 

The families may be thus distinguished : 


A. Pygidium vertical or declivous : 
geniculate, clubbed; labrum wanting: 
Last spiracle covered etc. (sub-families etc.) - 
b. Antenne straight; labrum distinct: 
Last spiracle not covered by ventral segments ; rej ai 
notched to receive sutural apex of elytra. . - 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 465 


B. IE horizontal; smaller 
næ geniculate, cl abbed : 
Terminal edge of last ventral acute, harsh ite. the last dorsal; 
tibie generally ae and s YTID 
b. Antenne strai 
Ventral segments vane unequal, antenne with annulated club. 


IONIDÆ. 
Ventral segments nearly equal; antennæ with 11 separate joints. 
BELIDÆ. 


CALANDRIDÆ. 


Elytra with the usual fold on the inner face near the side very 
strongly developed ; diverging behind, and becoming gradually 
effaced. 

Ventral segments 3d and 4th shorter, 1st and 2d connate; lat- 
eral prolongations broad, imbricated ; the sharp edge for reception 
in the elytral groove only developed on the 1st and 2d segments. 
Dorsal segments coriaceous, pygidium large, tri om net rounded 
at tip, declivous, alike in both sexes, thou ugh smaller in the thi 
sub-family ; last spiracle covered by prolongation of ati seg- 
ments. 

An excellent synopsis of the United Say species of this 
family has been published by Dr. G. H. H 

According to differences in the form of on mouth, the indig- 
enous genera may be divided as follows: 


A. Pygidium exposed: 


Gular peduncle long, . . oo ee + 6 + COALINDIA: 
B. Pygidium covered by elyt 

Gular peduncle broad, ‘aah concealed, .. + RHINID A. 

Gular peduncle moderate, mouth normal, . . . . COSSONIDE. 


The mouth in this sub-family is formed upon a peculiar type not 
Seen in the genuine Curculionide ; the gular peduncle is extremely 
long and narrow, leaving the maxille visible in the buccal fissures ; 
the mentum is small, sometimes concave, and the palpi not usually 
visible. The mandibles are convex on their outer face and 
Strongly toothed at tip as in many Curculionide. The beak is 
long, curved and cylindrical, the antennez inserted at a distance 
from the mouth, geniculate, with a large club which is-corneous 
and smooth at base, spongy and pubescent over the rest of the 
- Surface. The eyes are transverse and finely granulated. The 
2 *Proc. Am. Phil. Society, 1873. 

AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 30 


+ 


466 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 


front coxæ are widely distant. The side pieces of the metasternum 
are large, and those of mesosternum also large, ascending ob- 
liquely. The hind coxæ are oval, and widely separated, the tibia 
are slender, sinuate, strongly unguiculate at tip, with the articular 
surface lateral; tarsi usually dilated, and brushlike beneath, some- 
times narrow and not scopiferous; last joint rather long, claws 
simple, separate. : one 


RHINIDZ. Be 
Again a different modification of mouth is seen in this sub-family. 


concealed. The mandibles are smooth and very convex on the in- 
ner face, while the outer face is rough and flattened, and the teeth 
project outwards. The beak is long and slender. The antenn® 
are geniculate, the club is smooth and corneous at base, spongy 
and pubescent for the rest of the surface. The eyes are large 
and coarsely granulated, and meet on the under surface of the 
head. The front coxæ are very narrowly separated, the under me 
face of the body, and the dorsal segments are as in Calandride, 
except that the pygidium is covered by the elytra. Tibiæ slender, 
strongly hooked at tip, tarsi narrow, 3d joint bilobed, ciliate at 
the sides, not pubescent: 4th joint long, claws simple, ; 

A small black species of Rhina has been found by Mr. ù. ™ 
Crotch, in the trunks of Yucca in the Mohave Desert of California; 
otherwise the genus occurs generally in tropical America. 


COSSONIDÆ. a 
With the same arrangement of abdominal segments above de 
scribed, these insects have an oral structure similar to that of 
Hylobiini in the true Curculionidæ. The gular peduncle is 
ately long, the mentum distinct, and palpi large. The man 
are normal in form, convex externally, toothed as usual 
The beak is moderate, or (Rhyncolus) short and stout. 
transverse, moderately finely granulated. The antenn® § 
late, rather stout, club oval annulated, pubescent. Front 
separate, tibia hooked at tip, tarsi narrow, 3d join 
Pygidium covered by the elytra, smaller than in the two 
sub-families. 


SCOLYTIDZ. 
The members of this family, which contains some of 
destructive enemies of forest trees, may be easily reco 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 467 


the peculiar arrangement of the last ventral segment, which is 
prolonged upwards along the whole lateral and apical margin, so 
that the pygidium is confined entirely to the dorsal surface, and, 
as it were, surrounded by this sharp edge. 

The mouth is normal in form, the gular peduncle emarginate, 
the mentum moderate in size, prominent, buccal fissures broad, 
maxille exposed. Mandibles stout, curved, convex on the outer 
face, toothed on the inner side. Beak short, or almost wanting, 
antennz short, geniculate, club usually solid, annulated on one or 
both sides, base usually smooth and corneous for a greater or less 
extent ; rarely (Phiceotribus) the club is lamellated. Eyes usually 
large and transverse. 

Front coxe usually contiguous and subconical, hind coxe large, 
not widely separated ; tibige compressed, usually serrate on the 
outer edge, terminal spur large ; tarsi sub-pentamerous, not spongy 
beneath, 3d joint sometimes narrow, sometimes dilated ; 4th joint 
usually rudimentary, sometimes (Platypus) quite distinct, last joint 
long, claws simple, separate, strong. 

The ventral segments are not very unequal in length, anid the 
suture between the 1st and 2d is straight and well marked, the 5th 
is frequently the longest ; the intercoxal process of the 1st is usu- 
ally acute. 

The dorsal segments are membranous, the pygidium is small 
and horizontal, covered by the elytra: the last spiracle is visible ; 
the lateral upward prolongations of the ventral segments are well 
marked, and furnished with a sharp edge, continued even to the 
tip of the 5th segment. The lateral fold of the elytra is conse- 
quently well marked, the groove narrow and deep, sapere ob- 
literated, but not wider toward the tip. 

Two sub-families are indicated, Platypodide and Seolytide, the 

“Ist with the basal joint of the tarsi very long, and the 4th dis- 
tinct; the latter with the 1st joint shorter than the others united, 
and the 4th joint less developed.* 

The synonymy of our species will probably present much diffi- 
culty, and the number is by no means that indicated by the names 
*On p. 369, of vol. vii of the Genera des Coléopteres, Lacordaire haa alge enti 
tribe E he erigan 

m the apasi by a distinet edge; and the maa m antenne © 
posed of 7 lamellate jo’ al 


I cannot help su ermiton dad these insects have been misplaced. I sought for speci- 
mens in all of the large European collections ‘which I visited, but without success. 


. 


468 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 


in the catalogues. The only connected series of descriptions is 
contained in the synopsis by Dr. Zimmermann, with an appendix, 


nition and distinction of each species. Many of the same have 
been described by Mr. Eichoff,+ with diagnoses only, and no € 
parative or differential characters. For their identification, there- 
fore, comparison of specimens will be necessary, or the complet 
of the promised monograph of the family from the hands of 
author must be awaited. 


ANTHRIBIDA. 


In this family of the Rhynchophora there is as near an approa’s 
to the normal Coleoptera as is observed in Rhinomaceride, the 
first family herein defined. Me 

e beak is short or moderate, depressed above, with the an- 
tennæ inserted in fove or short grooves which are usually lateral, 
rarely (Choragus, etc.) on the upper face; the antenne are not 
geniculate, with 11 distinct joints, rarely (Hormiseus) but 10: 
the scape is not elongated. The labrum is quite distinct; the 
mouth is normal in structure, the gular peduncle large and deeply 
emarginate, with the mentum and ligula received in the emargr 
nation, the maxille are exposed and have two distinct } 
a character unknown in the preceding families, except in 
Platypodid ; mandibles flattened, curved and acute at tip, 100° 
onthe inner side. Eyes large, rather finely granulated, 
or emarginate. The front cox are contiguous or nab’. 
arated, rounded; the pronotum is sharply margined 
the margin is frequently distant from the base, curved fo = 


wide, not imbricated, and the sharp edge is well gE 
dorsal segments are membranous, except the pygidium W° 
rather large, deflexed and only partly covered by the ey” 
last spiracle is large and visible when the elytron is rals 
base of the pygidium is very deeply notched (s0 that the 


e elytra (which is grooved for its whole extent) is 


* Trans. Am. Ent. Soc., ii, 141, Sept., 1868. 
t Berliner Ent, Zeitschrift, 1968 et sqq- 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 469 


and slightly prolonged at tip so as to fit into this excavation. The 
lateral fold of the inner surface of the elytra is well marked for 
the middle third, but is distant from the side, and gradually ob- 
literated behind, following along the 2d line of punctures from 
the side. The tibiæ are slender, truncate at tip, with feebly de- 
veloped spurs, never mucronate ; the tarsi are dilated and brush- 
like beneath, the 2d joint usually deeply emarginate, receiving the 
3d joint in the emargination : the 3d is usually narrower and shorter 
than the 2d and also emarginate : the last joint moderate in length, 
claws separate toothed. 

As observed by Lacordaire,* when the sexual differences are 
well marked the male is larger than the female, and the beak of 
the latter is shorter: the reverse being the case in all other fami- 
lies of Rhynchophora. There are also sometimes great differ- 
ences in the antenne and front legs which are much longer in the 
male, 

The larvæ of some species of Brachytarsus (Anthribus Geoff.) 
are parasitic on certain species of Coccus: the only example thus 
far ascertained of carnivorous habits among the Rhynchophora. 


APIONIDZE. 

In this family the last dorsal segment is horizontal and small as 
in the Scolytidæ, but the other characters are quite different. 

e beak is long and slender, the mouth small, the gular pe- 
dunele rather narrow and emarginate, the mandibles feeble, and 
acute. The antenne are not geniculate, the scape is somewhat 
elongated ; they are inserted on the side of the beak at or above 

€ middle, and the grooves are very short; the eyes are rounded, 
rather coarsely granulated. 

e prothorax is not lobed in front, the coxe are contiguous, 
Conical and prominent. The side pieces of the metathorax are 
distinct, narrow. The tibiæ are slender, truncate at tip; hind 
pair without spurs; the claws are separate, more or less toothed 
at the base, 

The dorsal segments are membranous: the last segment (pygi- 
dium) is horizontal, rather small and corneous, entirely covered by 
the elytra; at the side it meets only the 5th ventral, and the last 
Spiracle is not apparent: the ventral ‘segments are very unequal, 
TTE E a eS x 


* 1, c. vii, 480. 


470 CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 


the 1st and 2d very large connate, 3d and 4th very short, sut 
straight: lateral prolongation very narrow: groove on the i 
side of elytra narrow, gradually “ei "behind, fold exten 
nearly to the suture (somewhat as in Brenthide). 
This family is represented by Apion, a genus containing a l 
number of small species of pyriform body, and altogether | 
and of easily recognized appearance. So far as I have exa 
them they have well developed wings, though Lacordaire i 
that the body is apterous. This family is related to the Erirh 
tribe of true Curculionide. 7 
BELIDÆ. 
The Australian genus Belus, and the South American Hi 
ocerus, on examination present so many differences that I 
separated them to form a new family, which must be p: 
the present series. In fact, with a form of body greatly 
` bling Lixus of the true Curculionids, they have the dorsal 
inal segments of Apion; the ventral segments are, however, eqt 
or nearly so; the lateral prolongation is very narrow, and thou 
the edge is acute, the lateral fold on the inner face of the e 
extends only in the middle third, and is nearly confluent with 
margin at its front end. The antennæ are slender, 11 
straight, and the scape is moderately long. The tibiæ are 
truncate at tip, and the hind pair have two small but 
spurs as in normal Coleoptera. ; 
In the ¢ of Belus the apex of the elytra is prolonged 
many species of Lixus; and this family seems related és 
onine tribe of Curculionids as Apion is to the Eri 
slight trace of epipleura may be observed at the front part 
elytral side margin, thus showing also a relationship | 
Rhynchitide of the first series, in which, as I have al 
tioned there is a feeble fold on the inner face of the ely? 
the middle, but quite distant from the margin.— Cone 


HERBARIUM CASES. 


BY DR. C. C. PARRY. 


Norwitnstanpinc the lucidly expressed opinion of the present 
official authority in Washington, dignified with the high sounding 
title of the Honorable Commissioner of Agriculture, or the “ unim- 
portance of the routine duties of the herbarium botanist,” there 
has probably never been a time in the history of scientific botany, 
when greater attention has been given to this very important 
subject. 

More especially is this true of a rapidly increasing class of 
local or amateur “herbarium botanists,” who are intent on the 
collection and preservation for convenient reference and study, 
of limited floras, or particular natural orders of plants. 

Having had occasion from a somewhat prolonged experience 
as a botanical collector, to realize the want in my own case as 
well as-to observe the frequent loss of valuable material by-others, 
from the lack of suitable herbarium appliances, I have been led 
to adopt a simple contrivance with a view to meet the desid- 
eratum. i 

While for very extensive and permanently located herbaria, 
such as that of Prof. Gray at Harvard, stationary cases are per- 
haps more desirable on the score of economy ; still there is a 
manifest advantage in having a somewhat portable character to 
such depositories, in order that necessary additions can be incor- 
porated into the general collection with least disturbance of the 
original arrangement. More especially in the much larger class 
of collections subject to removal, is it advisable to provide for 
such contingencies, by separate portable cases. 

Still another advantage of such an arrangement is in limiting 
the depredation of destructive insects within narrow limits, where 
they can be checked without the great expense of going over an 
entire collection. In this view, (somewhat on the plan adopted 
in the British museum), I have adopted cases of the following 
description. 

These cases consist essentially of an evenly partitioned box, 
With double doors, black walnut (or hard wood) fronts, aa 
(471 


472 HERBARIUM CASES. 


flush on the outside, with no irregular projections of knobs or 

catches, so that for distant transportation they can be snugly 
enclosed in rough outside boxes (two or more together). The 
inside in each apartment has a capacity of 184 inches in height, ” 
by 134 inches in breadth, and 184 inches in depth. Each space 
is divided by two movable slides, into three equal divisions, oF 
six to each case. The doors are bevelled on the inside, with a 
corresponding bevel on the case, to which they are attached by 
outside hinges, so that in opening at a right angle there are no 
sharp edges to hinder the drawing out of the herbarium papers; 


Fig. 83. 


as well as allowing the cases to stand close side by side, 
interfering with the free opening of the doors, which C : 
clear back against the sides without bringing any strain upon the 
hinges. In packing for removal, remove the papers ez 
turn the cases on their backs, and lay in the papers 
order compactly filling each space with additional 
necessary. The removed wooden slides can, in case ike 
sized herbarium sheets are used, be placed breadth-ways « 
side of the papers, or separately packed in one of 
cases. 

The measurements as above given are such as are 
the size usually recommended of herbarium sheets, 
covers, or medium wrapping paper size, allowing a SMa" " 
age and € 
ified to suit P 
ular cases, without interfering with the general plan. 

By a slight modification on the inside, drawers may be 
‘tuted for slides, to receive bulky or irregular specimens 


adapted © 


and 


CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. 473 


' fruits, cones, wood sections, etc., still keeping up a desired uni- 
form outside appearance. 

In the permanent herbarium, these cases can be snugly piled 
one on the other, in tiers three or four in height, and closely 
fitting at the sides. The lower cases might be raised a foot or 
more above the floor, or the least used orders, or duplicates, kept 
in the lowest space. 

The height of two cases (39 inches) would be convenient in 
looking over and comparing specimens, and where scarcity of 
case room is not urgent, the best lighted spaces might be arranged 
at this height. 

At a rough estimate such cases may be calculated to hold 
conveniently six hundred species of average botanical specimens. 

The cost of such cases, depending of course, largely on the 
material used, and amount of finish, etc., has been fixed by a 
manufacturing firm here in Davenport, Iowa (M. B. Cochran & 
Co., school furniture dealers), at $6.50 per case. For a larger 
number (ten or more), or in case of an increased demand, the 
price could be materially reduced. I am indebted to the above 
firm for the use of the wood-cut, here given to illustrate this sub- 
Ject. The particular adaptation of such cases for school u 
to contain in convenient form the necessary material for illus- 
trating botanical lessons, is too obvious to require more than 
simple mention at this time. 


CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN.* 


Cuartes Roperr Darwin was born at Shrewsbury on Feb. 12, 

09. He is the son of Dr. Robert Waring Darwin, F.R.S., and 
grandson of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, F.R.S., author of the ‘* Botanic 
Garden,” “ Zoonomia,” ete. ; by the mother’s side he is grandson 
of Josiah Wedgwood, F.R.S., the celebrated manufacturer of 
pottery. Mr. Darwin was odesk at Shrewsbury School under 
Dr. Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield, and in the winter of 
1825 went to Edin inburgh University for two years. He there at- 
tended to marine zoology, and read before the Plinian Society at 
oS een “ Nature,” June 4, with a Portrait. . 


474 CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. 


the close of 1826 two short papers, one on the movement of 
ova of Flustra. From Edinburgh Mr. Darwin went to í 
College, Cambridge, where he took his Bachelor of Arts degree! 
1831. In the autumn of 1831, Capt. FitzRoy having offered to 

give up part of his own cabin to any naturalist who would accom- — 
pany H.M.S. Beagle in her surveying voyage round the world, 
Darwin volunteered his services without salary, but on 
that he should have the entire disposal of his collections, 
which he deposited in various public institutions. The - 


ginning of 1839, and has lived since 1842 at Down, Beck 
Kent, of which county he is a magistrate. 
The Royal Society awarded to Mr. Darwin, in 1853, the B 
Medal, and in 1864 the Copley Medal. In 1859 the Geolog 
Society awarded him the Wollaston Medal. He is an honoraty 
member of various foreign scientific Societies, and is a i 
the Prussian Order of Merit. 
Since his return from South America in the Beagle, Mr. Da 
life has been comparatively uneventful, even for a scientific mans 
indeed, so far as the public is concerned, the main events in BY 
Darwin’s career have been the publication of his” 
papers, which have been far more numerous than maby are . 
of. We give below a list of them :— 
General Works. Journal of Researches into the Natural History and G 
the countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle, 1845. 
On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, 1859 
This was APAA bya PA entitled “On the variation of organio he 
sinto of x published in the Journal of the Linnean Society, vol i 
? p- 46. 


The Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication. 2 sw 1868. 
2y 


The heer of the Emotions in Man and Animals Aang 

Zoological Works. The the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, edited : 
intended by C. Darwin, 1810; consisting of five parts er 

A monograph of the Cirripedia, Part I, Lepadide; Ray 800., 1851, PP- 

A monograph of the Cirripedia, Part 2, the Balanidw ; Ray 800- 1854 
A monograph of the Fossil Lepadidw; Pal. Soc., 1 Sl, pp. 86. 
A monograph of the Fossil Balanidw and Verrucide ; joe = 
e Structure of the genus s Sagitta; Ann 


ane 


earn 

"4 xiv. toad p. 241 

cid a Works on the vations contrivances by which and 
are 


___ On the Movements meets nd Habits of Climbing pug Journ, Linn. 800» 
(Bot.), p. 1—This Paper has also been published as eparate work- 


CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. 475 


On the ag of Sea-water on the Germination of Seeds; Journ. Linn. Soc., vol. i, 
1857 gea a 

On pii of Bees in the Fertilization of Papilionaceous Flowers; Ann. Nat. 
Hist., 2 Pe Ug p. 459 
On the 


Ti E E N 3343 


f the species of Primula; Journ. Linn. 
Soc., vol. vi, ie (Bot.), p. 77. 
t SER of e, —_ and mee reciprocal Sexual Relations in the genus 
Linum; Journ. n. Soe vii, 1863 (Bot.), p. 
On the sair Baou. a the Three P of Lythrum; Journ. Linn. Soc., vol. 
Vili, 1864, p. 169. 
On the hatha and oe oe nature of Offspring of Dimorphic 
and Trimorphic Plants; Journ. Lin 0C., vol. x, a (Bot. ),P 
On the Specific Differe ae eins Primula v and P. nes and = the Hy- 
brid Nature of the common Oxslip; Journ. imn. $00, a. x, 1867 ‘hoes hp 
Notes on the abet of Orchids; Ann. Nat. Hist., Sept., 1 
Geological Works. The Structure and pear tet of kee “1812; ‘Pp 214, 
Geological Higeetde ri on Dare ae Islands, bie sgia 
Geological Observa ns merica, 1 
nnectio n of aes e oo Phenomena i in aa porn etc.; Trans. Geol. 
Soc., vol. v; read March, 1 
On the Distribution of a Erratic Boulders in South America; Trans. Geol. Soc., 
vol. vi; read April, 1841. 
n the Transportal of Erratic Boulders from a lower to a higher level; Journ. Geol. 
Soc., 1848, p. 315. 
Kolas on the Ancient Glaciers of Caernarvonshire; Phil. Mag., vol. xxi, 1842, p. 180. 


On the Geology of the Falkland Islands; Jou 1. Soc., 1846, pp. 267. 
Re kable Bar of Sandst off Pernambuco; Phil. Mag., Oct., 1841, p. 257, 
On the formation of Mould; Trans. 1 » Vol. V, ; za 


On the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy; Trans. Phil. Soc., 1839, p 
On the Power of Icebergs to make Grooves on a AE e t PEE Phil. Mag., 
Aug., 1855. 
account of Be Fine Dust which often falls on vessels in the Atlantic Ocean; 
Proc. Geol. Soc., 1 
Origin of the o Deposits of Patagonia; Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. ii, 1838, p. 


Part Geology; Admiralty Manual of Scientific Inquiry, 1849. Third ed., 1859. 


NOTICE BY ASA GRAY. 


Two British naturalists, Robert Brown and Charles Darwin, 
have, more than any others, impressed their influence upon science 
in this nineteenth century. Unlike as these men and their works 
were and are we may most readily subserve the present purpose in 
what we are called upon to say of the latter by briefly comparing 
and contrasting the two. 

obert Brown died sixteen years ago, full of years and scientific 
honors, and he seems to have finished several years earlier all 
the scientific work that he had undertaken. To the other, Charles 
Darwin, a fair number of productive years may yet remain, and 
are earnestly hoped for. Both enjoyed the great advantage of 
ing all their lives long free from any exacting professional du- 


476 CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. 


ties or cares, and so were able in the main to apply themselves to 
research without distraction and according to their bent. yi 
at the beginning of their career, were attached to expeditions of 
exploration in the southern hemisphere, where they amassed rich 
stores of observation and materials, and probably struck out, 
while in the field, some of the best ideas which they subsequently 
developed. They worked in different fields and upon different 
methods ; only in a single instance, so far as we know, have they 

handled the same topic; and in this the more penetrating insight 

of the younger naturalist into an interesting general problem may 
be appealed to in justification of a comparison which some will : 
deem presumptuous. Be this as it may, there will probably bè 


Pe a ey 


little dissent from the opinion that the characteristic trait common 
to the two is an unrivalled scientific sagacity. In this these two 
naturalists seem to us, each in his way, preeminent. There is & 
characteristic likeness, too—underlying much difference—in their - 
admirable manner of dealing with facts closely, and at first hand, - c 
without the interposition of the formal laws, vague ideal concep- 
tions, or “glittering generalities” which some philosophical bc 
uralists make large use of. i 
A likeness may also be discerned in the way in which the works 7 
or contributions of predecessors and contemporaries are referred 
to. The brief historical summaries prefixed to many of Mr. 
Brown’s papers are models of judicial conscientiousness- And 
Mr. Darwin’s evident delight at discovering that some one else i : 
“said his good things before him,” or has been on the verge OF 
uttering them, seemingly equals that of making the discovery 
himself. It reminds one of Goethe’s insisting that his views $ 
morphology must have been held before him and must be somt — 
where on record, so obviously just and natural did they appear 
to him. 
Considering the quiet and retired lives led by both these 
and the prominent place they are likely to occupy in the histo) 
science, the contrast between them as to contemporary 
ular fame is very remarkable. While Mr. Brown was l00 
to with the greatest reverence by all the learned botanists, * 
scarcely heard of by any one else; and out of botany he Y% 
known to science except as the discoverer of the Brownian 
of minute particles, which discovery was promulgated e 
vately printed pamphlet that few have ever seen. Al ough 


CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. 477 


Darwin had been for twenty years well and widely known for his 
“Naturalist’s Journal,” his works on “ Coral Islands,” on “ Vol- 
canic Islands,” and especially for his researches on the Barnacles, 
it was not till about fifteen years ago that his name became pop- 
ularly famous. Since then no scientific name has been so widely 
spoken. Many others have had hypotheses or systems named after 
them, but no one else that we know of a department of biblio- 
graphy. The nature of his latest researches accounts for most of 
the difference, but not for all. The Origin of Species is a fasci- 
nating topic, having interests and connections with every branch 
of science, natural and moral. The investigation of recondite 
affinities is very dry and special ; its questions, processes, and re- 
sults alike— although in part generally presentable in the shape of 
morphology — are mainly, like the higher mathematics, unintel- 
ligible except to those who make them a subject of serious study. 
They are especially so when presented in Mr. Brown’s manner. 
Perhaps no naturalist ever recorded the results of his investigations 
in fewer words and with greater precision than Robert Brown : cer- 
tainly no one ever took more pains to state nothing beyond the 
precise point in question. Indeed we have sometimes fancied that 
he preferred to enwrap rather than to explain his meaning ; to put 
it into such a form that, unless you follow Solomon’s injunction 
and dig for the wisdom as for hid treasure, you may hardly appre- 
hend it until you have found it all out for yourself, when you will 
have the satisfaction of perceiving that Mr. Brown not only knew 
all about it, but had put it upon record long before. Very different 
from this is the way in which Mr. Darwin takes his readers into his 
confidence, freely displays to them the sources of his information, 
and the working of his mind, and even shares with them all his 
doubts and misgivings, while in a clear and full exposition he sets 
forth the reasons which have guided him to his conclusions. These 
you may hesitate or decline to adopt, but you feel sure that they 
have been presented with perfect fairness ; and if you think of ar- 
guments against them you may be confident that they have all 

een duly considered before. 
: The Sagacity which characterizes these two naturalists is seen 
‘n their success in finding decisive instances, and their sure insight 
into the meaning of things. As an instance of the latter on Mr. 

arwin’s part, and a justification of our venture to compare him 
with the facile princeps botanicorum, we will, in conclusion, allude 


478 CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. ~ 


to the single instance in which they took the same subject in hand. 

In his papers on the organs and modes of fecundation in Orchidex 

and Asclepiadee, Mr. Brown refers more than once to C. K. 

Sprengel’s almost forgotten work, shows how the structure of the 

flowers in these orders largely requires the agency of insects for 
their fecundation, and is aware that “in Asclepides . .. the in- 
sect so readily passes from one corolla to another that it not u- 
frequently visits every flower of the umbel.” He must also have 

contemplated the transport of pollen from plant to plant by wind — 
and insects ; and we know from another source that he looked upon — 
Sprengel’s ideas as far from fantastic. Yet instead of taking the - 
single forward step which now seems so obvious, he even hazarded — 
the conjecture that the insect-forms of some Orchideous flowers — 
are intended to deter rather than to attract insects. And so thè 
explanation of all these and other extraordinary structures, 38 _ 
well as of the arrangement of blossoms in general, and even the i 
very meaning and need of sexual propagation, were left to be ee, 
plied by Mr. Darwin. The aphorism ‘‘ Nature abbors a vacuum — 
is a characteristic specimen of the science of the Middle Age — 
The aphorism “ Nature abhors close fertilization,” and the demor- — 
stration of the principle, belong to our age, and to Mr. Dari 
To have originated this, and also the principle of Natural 3 
lection—the truthfulness and importance of which are evident 
the moment it is apprehended—and to have applied these 


within a dozen years, a deeper impression upon natural history 
than has been made since Linneus, are ample title for one 
fame. eo 
There is no need of our giving any account or of estimating the 
importance of such works as the ‘+ Origin of Species by a 
Natural Selection,” the “Variation of Animals and Plants ™ 
Domestication,” the “Descent of Man, and Selection in rel ee 
to Sex,” and the ‘Expression of the Emotions in Man and x 
imals,”— a series to which we may hope other volumes ma, 
time be added. We would rather, if space permitted, T 
_ analysis of the less known, but not less masterly, subsidiary 
upon the various arrangements for ensuring cross-fertiiZ® es 
flowers, for the climbing of plants and the like. These 
have heard, may before long be reprinted in a volume, and 5 


. 


mented by some long-pending but still unfinished it 


KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGZ OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 479 


upon the action of Dionæa and Drosera—a capital subject for Mr. 
Darwin’s handling. 

Apropos to these papers, which furnish excellent illustrations of 
it, let us recognize Darwin’s great service to natural science in 
bringing back to it Teleology: so that, instead of Morphology 
versus ‘Teleology, we shall have Morphology wedded to Teleology. 
To many, no doubt, Evolutionary Teleology comes in such a ques- 
tionable shape as to seem shorn of all its goodness; but they will 
think better of it in time, when their ideas become adjusted, and 
they see what an impetus the new doctrines have given to investi- 
gation. They are much mistaken who suppose that Darwinism is 
only of speculative importance and perhaps transient interest. In 
its working applications it has proved to be a new power, eminently 
practical and fruitful. 

And here, again, we are bound to note a striking contrast to Mr. 
Brown, greatly as we revere his memory. He did far less work 
than was justly to be expected from him. Mr. Darwin not only 
points out the road, but labors upon it indefatigably and unceas- 
ingly. A most commendable noblesse oblige assures us that he will 
80 on while strength (would we could add health) remains. The 
vast amount of such work he has already accomplished might 
Overtax the powers of the strongest. That it could have been done 
at all under constant infirm health is most wonderful. 


A KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGE OF THE ATLANTIC 
COAST, BETWEEN NEWFOUNDLAND 
AND FLORIDA. 


BY PROF. D. S. JORDAN. 


PART II. RHODOSPERMES. 
(RED ALGÆ). 

Plants rosy red or purple, rarely brown-red or greenish red, 
becoming, when exposed to sunlight, dull green or yellowish. 
Fructification of two kinds; diccious:—1. Spores contained 
either in external or immersed conceptacles, or densely aggregated 
. * lea and dispersed in masses throughout the substance of the 


a2. Tetraspores, red or purple, either external or immersed 


480 KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGZ OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 


in the frond, rarely contained in proper receptacles; each tetra- 


spore enveloped in a pellucid skin, and at maturity splitting into 
four sporules. Antheridia filled with yellow or hyaline corpuscles. 


Ours all marine A PRA and ei below low water 
noce e a 


mark. 


A. Frond calcareous, riia; its cells containing Carbonate vs 


Lime, i . . . . CORALLINACE TTE 
A. Frond expanding hema lichen-like, but not calca- | 
Gs. a. - « « « SQUAMARLA. y 
A. Frond not calcareous nor lichenoid, . ' B 
B. Frond mostly cylindrical, partly or entirely artioulate, c 
B. Frond not articulate anywhere, i G | 
C. Nodes much constricted, . ; D 
C. Nodes not specially osiavicted, „E 
D. Joints obvious throughout, long in ithe main seme on = 
gradually shorter above, spherical at the tips; color 
bright, sometime gold-tinted, . . GRIFFITHSIAM 
CERAMIACE®. d 
D. . Terminal joints not spherical : colors duller, often greenish, 


cuamp1a in LAURENCIACEE. 
Sporiferous nucleus in external spherical conceptacles : axis 


Fi 


polysiphonous (of 4 or more age joints not distinct 


on older parts of frond, . HODOMELACE2. 


E. Avis monosiphonous : me a obvious : colors mostly 


. + 


bright, ue 
F. Branches beset with ‘dor, fae, ‘mostly simple “filam A 
SPYRIDIACEE. ! 


F. Not as above ; mostly dae Kg, frond sometimes 
two edged, . CERAMIACEZ. 


G. Frond flat, with an evident midvein, 
SPHÆROC 


G. Frond without a midvein, 

H. Sporiferous nucleus sondteting of tufted sporestre 
tached to a placenta; single spores in 
spore thread, or only in the terminal cell. 
rarely flat or — PRY less — in 
than the next.) ; i s 


eat 


-oocom a 


KEY TO THE, HIGHER ALG#, OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 


H. Sporiferous nucleus subglobose, either simple or formed of 
many. nucleoli; numerous spores without order in a 
membranaceous mother-cell. (Fronds leathery, often 
large, and rarely adhering closely to paper.) . . 

I, Frond composed of polygonal cells ; often flat or ieee 

RHODYMENIACEA 


I. Fronds various, rarely truly fan-shaped; the ultimate 
structure being jointed filaments compacted together by 
gelatine, -s sites: tae ict EL ee CEA; 


J. Nucleus in an external, ovate or spherical conceptacle, : 
J. Nucleus not as ‘above; cylindrical, dichotomously forked, 
K. Cylindrical ; br anches mostly tapering towards base and 
3 apex ; a cellules very minei . 
GELIDIACER. 


K. Gi iat or flat ; surface covered with small cells ; 
branches not, tapering to.base (except in CHONDRIA) 


RHODOMELACEZ. 
K. Without above combinations ; frond flat in our species, ~ 
SPHAROCOCCOIDEZ. 
L. Namis in wart-like excrescences ; Per fan-shaped ; apices 
attenuate, of equal length, SPONGIOCARPEAS. 
` L. Nucleus immersed in the frond; apices blunt, 
: HELMINTHOCLADER. 
M. Frona cylindrical, at least the branchlets or younger parts artic- 
ulate oly hrnd 
M. 


Frond ie aableniate enki. ee en ee 
Frond elongated; main stem mostly inarticulate, but thickly 
te with fac jointed branching filaments which bear the 


5 


sya. 
Hy of frond, longitudinally aka, Saati. Teig red, and 
profusely branch Polysiphonia. 
Frond tessellated ae se or sie purple cells ; small— 
- about 1 inch high, . Bostrychia. 
Frond flat, etn obscurely ie . . Odonthalia: 


a 


o. Cylindrical; branches tapering toward the base, . Chondria. 
S Cylindrical; b branches not tapering to base, . +. Ehodomela. 
*%. one pinnate seal ; A to 4 inches high ; Corallina. 


elobes 
F rond a red i ga on igs in Smi water, Nullipora (2). 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL, 


r 


481 


ae 


B 


HR poe = 


482 


KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGZ OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 


Sem ei in definite sori; frond flat, with a berg: e AUi 
Frond flat, without a midvein; spores n ‘ 
Delicate, rosy red; lamina unbranched; no bes ota $ 

Grin nellia. 


Fronds with veins and veinlets or else branched, . Delesseria. 
Frond compressed in our species, laciniate, . . Gracilaria. 
Frond flat, laciniate, delicate and rosy, often veiny, Nitophyllum. 
Frond flat, leathery, margined with wing-like segments, Pc 
Calliblepharis 
Frond slightl b hlet ler at base, Gelidiu 
Coarser; cylindrical; succulent and flaccid, Solieria. 
Frond filiform, much branched; branches clothed with m 
ointed branchlets s 
Dark brown, eketia not ‘adhering ió jaen : Po ides 
Suborbicular; red-black, . Peyssonnelia. 
Regularly äickotomiois and irii “topped, Vo. 
Sparingly dichotomous; worm-like, a el e N 
Frond flat, fan-shaped, multifid, ey i 
Frond linear, two-edged, pectinate- -pinnatifid, . Ploca 
Frond terete, alternately decompound, » Oe rye 
Frond stipitate, palmately cleft; usually ares and dark, - 
Rhodi 
Roseate; dichotomously or seat multifid, . Euthora. 
More or less flattened or compressed, eca m ee 
Cylindrica 


nde stipitate, panen pene shaped, vey variable in clo an 
Cho 


Friot Asiera irregulariy. cleft, pikro dos heir 
Phyllophora. 
Channelled on one side, convex on the other; covered with little 
tubercles Pi frondlets, Cigera® 
Frond rigid, 2 to 3 dabos high; ‘Molen ss rounded; 
apices ett t, mnogo T 
Frond 1 to 2 feet wagi ikari fringed, with siaii doa 
Grateloupia. 
Frond broad, palmate, fringed with cilia; brilliant. pre 
Frond stiff, very rigid and horny; axils rounded, . 
TR very bushy; branchlets with a chain of pis "odes 
ontaining conceptacles, or else tendril peee s a 


: şa 
AAR we 4 2 ee ae and end te 


intl 
Frond delicate, much branched, scoala ewe to pares 6 ne 
nia. 


osipho 
Not as above, aut Sele oe ola 
Frond hollow, simple or eis sista hollow erent eri 
, p. Halo ai r 
y second a 


Branchlets mostly opposite and tapering to base; ; usuall 
or arching, stem constricted, adheres to paper, Chy Chylo 


KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGZ OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 


483 


eee 


% 


oa a ao 
ee ee 


T 238 


C. — aiia topped, dichotomous; axils and apices acute; ends 
swollen into pod-shaped tn ie . Furcellaria. 
d. Frond poms constricted at the nodes, . Griffithsia. 
d. Frond two edged, decompound eee pia opa, Ptilota. 
d. Frond filiform, ` 
@. Tetraspores konk in ihe Goih: ante iotatid: broches dichots: 
mous and commonly ending in little forks, which are often 
incurved; eiar ainsa ee Cer 
©. Tetraspores external; much branched; rarely dichotomous or ` 
with the apices hooked Callithamnion. 
e. Tetraspores external; whorls of stork; oirro branchiets at the 
nodes, a a a Gea ae Š alurus. 
f. Surface eiaiaed with iiaii cella i ne sins 
g. Pinnately decompound; axils yhtn apices al acute, 
h. Branchlets club-shaped, obtuse, . . i heh 
BY Branchlets acute at eachend, < 2.6) 1. we 
i... Stem stout, mostly excurrent, . . 9.0. 6 2 ee ee 
i, Slender, generally forking near base, eit E et 
j. Frond slender, with setaceous brinchlets pi ete Oe’ + 
j. Stout, with thick branchlets, eure 
k. Substance soft, closely siksna té paper; : ace 
k. Rather rigid; scarcely adhering to paper, = ro 
l. Brownish red, pinnately much branched, ie 
l. Rosy, staining paper; more slender and regulary pinnate gre 
ee ee os 
m. Primary tubes 6 t eee 
n. Visibly articulate seat : dbaectiaits pallúcid; ets 
n. Stem and larger branches apparently not jointed, . 
0. Branches widely spreading, beset — re branchlets, 
O. Branches not spinous nor divarica 
P. Rigid and bushy; not — ia drawn: foti the vents 
joints rt, . 
P. Flaccid and silky ; joints wapin T eae es 
q. Dark; tips with tufts of rome fibrils “ 
q. Fu red; in small dense tufts or onde which sins © closely to 
p . 
q. Coarser; eon Linsey tufted ; wares adher ing, 
T. Red brown; branches long, twig-like, sometimes with Sancti of 
fine rosy branchlets; stem scarcely adhering to paper, 
r. Dull, brownish; tips fibrilliferous; joints striate; tiaras % 
paper, ie 
r. Brighter eclored, « more bennéloet sii with longer "joints, I 
8. Pivnately much branched, — jointed; branches mostly 
naked below and pinnate above; blackish; substance rigid 
wiry, not adhering pasi to paper; excessively varia- 
bo 
8. 


Internodes bag: branches feathery Å" the tips; adir to 
Paper; a deep water variety. of No. 73 (?) . ; 


484 KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGZ OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 


8. Forming globose, rigid, dark brown tufts on Fucus nodneness 
y joints mostly short, with a dark central spot 

8. Small, orb full red, distichous, many times pinnate, smith subu- 
i late pinnules å ot 
s. With none of the seve couitnaitone ‘of ene cte Sart 
t. Dichotomous or zigzag; bright purplish, inca i panah d 
t. Densely tufted; not dichotomous; full red; scarcely adhering et 
u. River mouths, etc., sometimes in fres ee 


Y. e red, closely m to paper siagon 
w. Shallow water, etc. ; adheres to fiiia vari ‘able, ae 
x. Lurid vada green when exposed: white when ' eacha so 
a Others probably occur; A ane ney mentions No. a 
on the Mass. said by Mr. Bicknell ih ia Ke : 
pA 3 Brillignt, very delicate ; grt close] pie: T 


y ; 

B.? Fronds like oak-leaves; pinnatifid or sinuate; rie watan n 
B.* Alternately or dichotomously sialic roseate, > + ce 
B.? Frond undivided, proliferously brane from the mien ie 
B.? Frond dichotomous; constricted, sean, jointed at the n M 
rooting or ETPA at the forks; die trok ka 


c. ? Frond somewhat rigid; sori oblong, - e 
C.? Frond soft, thin, flaccid; ie round, IRER 
D.? Dark red-purple; apices sometimes cirrhous, ee 
EB. Much divided; — Aia ee cad vi UAM 


F. Purplish; rather rigid, . EEE E s 7 
G.” Dark or eee Bo alien t to i DAGA) para r 
H.? Branches which eat r tetraspores, pod-like in pe ‘miale, m 

I. Very dark red- brown; does not adhere to piy Kii , 


J. Red-black; margin paler, . . * ‘ 
K.? Dull purplish, adhering to paper, . og tetera 
L.” Rosy red; level-topped; tender, . a E E 
M. Tetraspores in cloudy pat tches ; arge; n iu AE 
M.? Tetraspores in distinct sori i Su rare, cords w e E 


O.’ Lower branchlets entire; upper poci 3 
Pe Livia purple; sometimes compressed; s densely t ‘tufted: i 


2 a a? of the 
r red, 

Q. 2 inmate forming dark Aaaa convex = patches a at the i 

of the laminæ; dull red, i e 


R.? Compressed ; segments forked at re boci a S 
R. Flat; axils very much rounded, vuoan An 
8.’ Densely tufted; wiry; does not sisia 
T.? Fruiting branches mostly tapering to paih: excessive . 
tred; palmate; rare, > . i . 


mous, 

W.? Often iridescent; greenish’ in shallow water f and bl 
white; sori purplish, like drops of blood; pe 

X.? Much diyaricate ; branches tubular, , 


« 


ee Sr 


KEY TO THE HIGHER ALG OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 485 


X.? Pinnate; branches mostly opposite and compound, . . . . . 118 
Y.’ Very densely tufted; often distorted; livid E ian: ELE 


Z? Similar, except in fruit, to Polyides, or eat at ee 8h 
a.’ Frond multifid; laciniz very long, reves aN oe EO 
a.° Frond pinnately decompound, aie a eee e 
b.? Much branched; older parts kilid; ; Pind oes ALO 
¢.’ Branches spreading; covered with small Titaha, ieecien Be 


e? Branches straggling; often revolute; shorter and stouter, 
- Internodes entirely diaphanous; surface cells only at the nodes, e? 
d.? Coa arser; internodes not e diaphanous; common and var- 


e, . 121 
6? Joints everywhere 3 as long as broad ; or a alugic online cell 
ormipg mats o 
@.” Frond of equal diatas eras house lowes joint rosy 4 to 6 
times as long as broad; upper shorter - 12 
®.* Attenuated above: lower j joints 3-4 times = fae as Mente: A 
f. Nodes swollen: internodes pellucid, JR fut Fas 
” Nodes not swollen: lower ternodenal 
- Pinne opposite, énitkes the one aaa leat, t the other 
branch-like pinnately-comp ; 
8? Pinnæ opposite, mostly similar E E a ae: y 
5 Pinnæ articulated : dark pu roles diites w pami argent 128 
a. Pinne unequal: northern: rare in America, E a s ARE 
1.” Branchlets very numerous, incurved,. . . + + + + + + +129 
A Adheres closely to paper: common : variable, 130 
k.? Frond shr a -_ pyramidal, with an caren: main -stem 
which is not obviously articulate, . i 


k.? Frond ieee: oe or alternately dechin genial with atéhotomous 
mares color not rose- Pets commonly drying pale 
or brown red x dy Meer Deraan Ge 
Fronds alternately P a a pair ve minute opposite 
branchlets at each node; mostly brillian 
ea few and distant, with whorls ms f opposite Ja at r 


apex, 
Without above: damas: an inc ei or more high. de nsely 
tufted, mostly rose-purple, and sie at jointed wore es 


+. Frond 41 inch, rolag oe cement: fonttod mee sea 
= Frond 4 inch or less high: parasitic, not rising from matted 
i thre a 8, om mostly but slightly branched, - - - + + >» 


es mes as long as broad, . . i 
eg Without above characters, a 


Densely tufted: bright rose seule aments ‘Aner than human 
` Mair: joints 3-8 times as long as broa 


486 KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGÆ OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 
n.? Somewhat coarser, with shorter joints: plumules distichous, . 134 
O.” Slender, ate aie oo at once from other Callith- 
-like chains of fruit (seirospores) : com- 
often gree ey (Formerly and perhaps more properly 
considered as the type of a separate genus, as Seirospora 
siana Harv.), 
oO.” apes sepa’ bichehen ending in little corii of 
bran 
p? ibraccuiins pectnats, secnid, aed on the opel side only 
of branches: a beautiful and rare little species: specimens 
of whieh were found at Penikese in 1873, Ba Miss Susan 
Bow eer oo 
p: aitse siniple, vubulibe, $ viiei eiiie T 14a 
p.” Branchlets, or some of them in efoute; pinna . 143 
p.? Without eire characters; branchlets ene pinnate, or ‘bie 
pinna ae 
q.? Joints ere ‘tines as a long as broad: “brilliant: PRSA et up 
.” Joints shorter: less commo hes 
r.” Forming a dense purple ge on Zpaterk: branched tong se 
cun ‘ X 148 
Yr.” Forming AR patches on dike teenies lope erec ct, ent 147 
r.’ Forming velvety tufts on Dasya: branches bud-like, secund, - 
r.* Forming a fleecy, pink-down on Ceramium rubrum: brane nch 148 
spreading, curved: frequent, . ae 
54. ODONTHALIA DENTATA Lyngby. Maine wer oe 3-12. 
55. A DASYPHYLLA Agardh. Coast. 
56. CHONDRIA BAILEYANA Montagne. Coast. 
57. CHONDRIA TENUISSIMA Agardh. Boston to ae York. 4-5. í 
58. CHONDRIA ATROPURPUREA Harvey. South Carolina and South. 4-10. 
59. RHODOMELA SUBFUSCA Agardh., New Jersey and North. 
60. R GRACILIS Kiitzing. Massachusetts and North. 4-12 
61. Harvey. New Jersey to Massachusetts. 4-8. 
62. POLYSIPHONIA URCEOLATA Greville. Virginia and N 1 
63. ONIA FORMOSA Suhr. New Jersey and North. 4%. “al 
64. POLYSIPHONIA SUBTILISSIMA Montagne. New Jersey and North 
65. LYS NIA OLNEYI Harvey. Long Island and North 2 
66. POLYSIPHONIA HARVEYI Bailey. Boston to New 4 
67. POLYSIPHONIA ELONGATA Greville. Massachusetts, etc. 6-12 Pr 
68. POLYSIPHONIA FIBRILLOSA Greville. New assachusett 
69. POLYSIPHONIA VIOLACEA Greville. Ne hk 
70. POLYSIPHONIA VARIEGATA rdh 
T1. POLYSIPHONIA PARASITICA Greville. are ie etc. a Bo 
72. PoLys NIA ATRORUBESCENS Greville. Logs Jersey to Rhode 1 
73. LYSIPHONIA NIGRESCENS oor ark 
74. POLYSIPHONIA AFFINIS Moo Coa 2 
75. POLYSIPHONIA FASTIGIATA Gein Mes Tork to Halex 1. 
76. BOSTRYCHIA RIVULARIS Harvey. New York to Florida. i 
Ti. DASYA ELEGANS Agardh. Cape Cod and Sou 
78. CHAMPIA LA Harvey. Cape Cod South. 2-4 
79. CORALLINA OFFICINALIS L. New Jersey and Nor n 
80. MELOBESIA PUSTULATA Lamouroux. Rhode Island, eto. Melobesis?) 
81. NULLIPORA PO 2 


LYPHYLLAMEA (?). New York and North. (A- 


KEY TO THE HIGHER ALG OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 487 


oe AMERICANA Harvey. New Jersey to Pr i 4-24. 

DELESSERIA SINUOSA Lamouroux. New York and N 3-8. 

DE “pacing ALATA Lamouroux. Cape Cod and Nor Ha 2-6. 

A HYPOGL amouroux. thers and South. 3-5. 
DELESSERIA LE PRIEURII Montagne. West Point and South. 1-2, 

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manii “Sac Agardh. Cape Cod and Sent th. 6-14. 
HYPNEA MUSCIFORMIS Lamouroux. Cape Cod and South. 48. 
POLYIDES ROTUNDUS Greville. New York ef Boston. 2-3. 
PEYSSONNELIA IMBRICATA Kiitzing. a indland. 
NEMALION MUL’ UM Agardh. Lon Island and North, §-10. 
SCINAIA FURCELLATA Bivona. “pene isla nd and Sonth. 2-4. 
RHODYMENIA PALMATA Greville. (Dulse. ) fi ona and North. 6-18. 
RHODYMENIA PALMETTA Greville. esas fax. 1-3 

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GYMNOGONGRUS NORVEGICUS Agardh. Mace 7 Lynn Beach. 
AHN A w Jersey and North. 5-10. 
Crstocrontu PURPURASCENS Kiitzing. Cape May and North. 6-14. 
CALLOPHYLLIS LACINIATA Kiitzi ing. Delaware. ae 
GIGARTINA MAMILLOSA A Agardh. d Nor 
CHONDRUS SEHI Lyngby. (Urish Moss.) New polis EP North. 3-8. 
CHYLOCLADIA BAILEYANA Harvey. Cape Cod and South. 2-3. 
Cuttoot ania OSEA Harvey. Long n to — ‘12. 


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‘A Kiitzing. Ca Cod an d North. 


avi ON POLYSPERMUM South. 
eg “HAMNION BYSSOIDEUM Arn. New geist to Massactasels. 1-3. 
een DIETZIÆ Hooper. — 
nue CORYMBOSUM New oot er North. 2-3. 
AMNION SEIROSPERMUM HPT New York to Maine. 3-5. 
MNION PLUMULA Lyngby. Long Branch and Penikese, 1 


BREASRPRRESEESEE ERE 
o f ° 
iliii 
H 
: 
z$ 
Af 
4 


488 KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGE OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 


140. CALLITHAMNION AMERICANUM Harvey. New York and North. 3-4. 
141. CALLITHAMNION PYLAISEI Montague. Cape Cod and North. 3-4. 
142, CALLITHAMNION FLOCCOSUM Agardh. Massachusetts. 4-3. 
143. CALLITHAMNION CRUCIATUM Agardh. New York. 1-14. 

Ag st. 


i 
— 


. CALLITHAMNION TU 
14%, CALLITHAMNION LUXURIANS Agardh. New York and North.— 
146. CALLITHAMNION ROTHII Lyngby. Connecticu 
147. CALLITHAMNION VIRGATULUM Harvey. New eatin 
48. C HAMNION DAVIESH Agardh. Massachusetts.— 
149, CALLITHAMNION TENUE Harvey. New Jersey. 3-4. 


eal 
EE 
foni 
BS 


* PART III. CHLOROSPERMEZ. 


(GREEN ALG.) J 


PLANTS grass-green, rarely brownish, bluish or purple, a few low 
forms red. Propagation in our species by simple cell-division, 
or by transformation of the coloring matter (endochrome) | of & 
cells of the whole or a part of the frond, into me In 
waters and damp places.* a 


A. Fronds Jilamentous, articulated; éendochrome diffused : H 
spores amallss: ies roy naa aa E 


A. Fronds various, never truly jointed. . . . + + + 


B. Frond tubular and hollow often branched or else broad w M 
flat, membranous, composed of simple quadrate cells. ' i 


B. Fronds composed of a simple filiform often pre, 
; branching cell, or of many such cells united into & 


sponge-like body; often bright green a plume-like- 
oe ienen SIPHONACEE. É 


B. Frond with an annulated pith, composed of very short re 
lules, surrounded by a membranous, inarticulate, 
Omar wean, o o CILLATORIACE: 

B. Microscopic, wnicellular ; growth by semisection of the cell. 

ULVACEE: 

C. Olivaceous or purplish, pi aie ak “ple Wee 
Onin fruits osc PORPHYRAC 


C. Color bright green at all times. . . 


* For een te of our numerous joe water Chlorosperms venga excellent 
arrangement of families than the one her adopted, see Prof. C. gai 
'“ Contrib reine to the History of the Fresh Water Algæ of North “America. 


KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGÆ OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 489 


g 


Green — cell-walls membranous; fresh water — chiefly or 
Tey ER o DESMIDIACEZ.* 


. Yellow brown; cell-walls silicious. DIATOMACEZ.* 


Frond sponge-like, of densely interwoven filaments, . Codium. 
Filaments free, plume-like, pinnately branched, . ryopsis. 
Filaments numerous, tufted or matted at base, free shoe e, irreg- 
ularly oe itie Sao <n OMCRER Oe 
z EL A i wee r: DARGIN: 
rond flat, ni or pa ft, si ancat e Porphyra: 
a rond flat, sometimes PER wile pp; . 
Frond tubular, often branched, . . ee Saanaa: 
Filaments tufted, branched, . » Cladophora 
Filaments unbranched; nodes ee aie sted. . Chetomorpha. 
filaments unbranched; constricted at the. nodes; a very 
short, : Hormotrichum. 
Filaments jong: flexible, bandied rela. E NERE E i Poros 
Filaments short, tufted, erect, tixed at base, - + Calothrix 
Filaments rigid, needle-shaped, lying loosely in a mucous matrix; 
vividly oscillating; commonly floating, . . Oscillatoria.* 
Fronds erect, TEPEE clothed with soft hairs, . . . 14 
Not much b d in, $ 
Common Gai reac with a bright glassy Tastee when on < 151 
Fruit— minute dark parais granules, arranged in fours, - . 152 
In fresh or salt water for rming large dark purple patches, cio eit air LO 
Forming a minute rosy down on Chondria, ete... . 154 
Frond never branched, large and bag-like when rally grown, . 155 
Frond bra nched; branches simple, obtuse, . - . . 156 
Frond branched; branches beset with ee og ps LE gra 
Fronds slender, tuft ed, . .- 157 
Fronds. very fine and feathery ; eshphiets BER sonia- 
ike, 7 ‘ 
Membrane formed aS a oaa laser of pa 
Membrane formed of as ingle layer of cells; eigen ea 
_ frond very delicate, saccate while young, becoming cleft; 
adheres closely to paper 161 
Frond lanceolate, compaia. of two closely applied n membranes; 4 
adheres to o paper. . yt 
Frond polymorphous, flat, aaea Sag ren ; 
Filaments rigid, dark green tufted, cell walls eg Joints 3 to 
4 times s long as broa 
Paent, ce forming ua BE fastigiate pale g green tufts, 
Filaments loosely tufted, stout, scarcely collapsing when drawn 
from the water; vivid green; joints 3 to 6 times as long as 
ia | 
eee et a ee E 
See ; . * Omitted. 


Dee wei Ri TS SEN i 
. 


HHeets HAA g 
be} by 
Sg 
5 
a 
Be 
5, 
3 


See 
kn MH ohop kun Hey 


WWOOORARBEMAS 


gp 


SARAR 


as CE: 


490 


sdqq fee m m 


PPNN d d M Ka 44 


sos 


eo? 


NAMHA 


m p Bt 


. Dark ao brilliant green (often drying pale); nodes not con- 


KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGÆ OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 


Dull e — adhering to paper; branches few, spreading 
xils; in brackish or fresh waters oe 
Not a as hove) ae loosely tufted sometimes interwoven 
eathery, very slender; pale or bright green, . 

Joints bale about twice—above, 6 to 8 times as tees as Drone U 

Joints uniformly about twice as long as broad; tufts short, 
PODIE Cy es we ee a E E S 

Tufts starry, of a brilliant glossy green dere. in drying, . . 163 

Tufts globose small, yellow-green; on sm . 164 

Joints 6 to 10 times longer than bread: bright rone -mm 

Joints 3 to 5 times longer than broad; sale or ye not 

adhering closely to paper, . 
Joints 2 to 4 times as long as eoki iij adhering tó papei w 


cted; excessively branched, 
Pa ta or glaucous green; nodes mostly obndinoted; 
DEAN branched; ultimate divisions saan pectinate; 
nts uniformly three times as long as broad, 
Labs branche, with longer joints ; main branches long; flexuous, 
almost nake . 167 
Rather aah bentohes ikueved peotinste joints 2 to 4 times as 
long as broa . 169 
Stems long, fetiouk; breiitid long; with short branchlets; aa 


= 
x 
. 166 


joints shorter, 
Pale spores forming sponny tutte nodes slightly constricted x : 
Yellow green; very flexuous; forming silky tu a 
Bright Falon green, fading when dry: branches crowded “ie e 
Full green; branches distant, nearly naked, . eae é 
Joints 3 or more times as vane as broad; . o <5 + e d 


Joints 14 to 3 times as long as broad, 
Joints not longer than broad, grit rather rigid bat collape- ” 198 
ng when drawn from the water, . 176 
Very rigid, glossy green; not adhering to paper; deep water, z 
Mei and flaccid; nodes very long, swollen, pale . 179 T 
Soft and flaccid; adhering closely to paper, >» - eS 
Coarse and rigid, dark green; filaments straight, eee e 
Filaments twisted, very slender but somewhat harsh, - + * ' i 
Mostly floating; joints less than twice as long as broad, «(os 182 
EENE 183 


S S 
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Joints twice as broad as T substance rather soft, 
Cell walis thick, . . cou F 

Cell walls thin, a 

In large dark green tufts Ganients thick and tenacious ete 187 

On sa etc., rusty or olivaceous; filaments upright ie pre - 

species, floating in mats in pas ere -a waters : 

iiias in thin strata on mud, > > . : 


2 


YNGBYA 
18. Lrxasra yERRuGI 


KEY TO THE HIGHER ALG OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 491 


i. Southern, blackish green, floating or attached to small ~~ ee 
j. Bluish green or rusty red; filaments tenacious . 186 
j. Blackish green or violaceous; filaments not half : so "atok as ‘ty 
the preceding. . . 188 
k. comnts 1 to 2 inches Tan saute Epania the pis sA 
chro t very distinctly annulated. P S a ee ge 
k. gee ‘lament densely matted iugetiie annulations more 
L In Hide pete tufts on the smaller ie oes Nee ee T 
l. In velvety patches on rocks, ete. = 
m. Filaments oa simple; common on ipek, adari ‘ide 


very slippery. 
m. Filaments Bate an ad iccighten, ines appearing branbhad, by 
the splitting of the endochrome (“viviparous”), . . - 93 


150. CODIUM TOMENTOSUM Stackh. Florida. 
151. VAUCHERIA (species areri in AARE Brittanica, allied to V. marina) 
Bay, etc. 


uzzard’s 
152. Brroprsis pripa A Lamouroux: Massachusetts and are 3-6. 
153. PORPHYRA VULG ee Charleston and North. 2-10. 


154. BANGIA FUSCOPURPUREA Lyngby. New Jersey and na 2-3. 
155. BANGIA CILIARIS Carm seis South Carolina. One-tenth. 
ENTEROMORPHA IN riot LIS Link. Whole Coast. 3-10. 

» ENTE SSA 


CLATHRATA Gre ville, e. Cape y and North. 2-6. 
RPHA HOPKIRKI M’Calla. New York, Massachusetts. 3A. 
d North. 


LVA (PHYCOSERIS) pana Linneus. Ne sey a 6-12. 
BL. ULVA (PHY ) LATISSIMA Linnæus. Whol 
in <a Lactruc nus. Massachusetts, Texas. a 
o ADOPHORA RUPESTRIS Linnæus. Main d North. 2-8. 
LADOPHORA ARCTA Dillwen. New Jersey and North. 
165, neiaa LANOSA Roth. beamant 1-14. 
168. CLADOPHORA UN Cape Cod and North. 1. 


167, va dame anoue Grimths view ast. 3-5 
Mie bdot net 


sengi 2-3. 
1m2 CLADOPHORA ALBIDA Bideoa. New York, Massachusetts. 6-8. 
g reese RUDOLPHIANA Agardh. New Y 


a7 sachusetts. 4-3. 
CHÆTOMORPHA tekstas Mon a. New Jersey and Mots: 12-16. 
MORPHA M. ad 


€ 
A MAJUSCULA Harvey. Whole Coast. 1-2. 
EA Agardh. Coast. 1-2. 


492 KEY TO THE HIGHER ALGE 


188. L 
189. sated NIGRESCENS Harve 
90. LY 


b 


1. 
92. 
93. ULORUM 4 
194. CALOTHRIX VIVIPARA Har 


þei þe pei 
Re 


Agardh. 
"vey. 


ADDITIONS. 
r. W. G. Farlow in Professor Baird’s “ Report on Fish and Fisheries 
syi gives the following additional species, localities, etc. : — 


Ralfsia v verrucosa Ag. Little 
Myriotrichia filiformis Gir Poin 
K eus disti p us L. ee ene 


TT EF a | 


cus fur 
abbas ly morpha aL. 
Melobe. 


sorter dae Common 
a ilbesla pustulata 1 On Fuci, Chonc 
Hildenbra sere Wood's Hole to New H 
Orv. s Grey. Lynn Beach. 


nogon ret 
A slender Socata of Gracilaria supposed 
Long Island. 
Chry ysimenta of Chy a ee ) rosea Harvey. 
pakara plumul Gay H 
ria tt Ore pan As. 
eea so ‘low 


Vood’s 


ETYMOLOGY OF NAMES OF GENERA. 


Agarum Bory St. Vincent. A Mushroom( ?) 
gps aa Ag. For Ahnfelt, a German bot- 


Alor va pees: 
Arthrocladia Dub y. dinted branch (in 
“ Key” Arth ociadiias By error Va dad 


Asperococcus Hooker, Rough-s 

Bangia Lyngb. For Hoffman Bang, a Da- 
mien botanist. 

Bostrychia Mont. Ox-hair. 

Bryopsis Lam. Moss-like. 


Calliblepharis Kitz. Beautiful eye-lashes. 
aa age Jyngb. Beautiful little 
rub. 
Callophyllis Kitz. Beautiful leaf. 
ie loi ia Te “6 Beautiful hair. 
mium Roth. A — (but the fruit 
gr not pitcher shape 
morpha 


Cladostephus. Abs Branch-crow 
Codium St Stackhouse. Skin 


of an animal. 


YNGBYA FULVA Harvey. Connecticut. 
Jer 
South aris 
rolin 
gardh. pacer Öne B 


Long Island to Fe Tere 


Nahant — wes known station in America. 
t Judith 


Robbi nstown, Mas 
gone ‘the coast on Zoste 


ead. 
ead. eit Point. 
Hole, Mass. (K ey.) thinks 
S Sargassum Montagnei as a variety n S. veigar and ; 
Callithamnion acts a warm water variety of C. tetragonum. ` 


OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 


sey- “Massachusetts L 
1-2. 


p 


One-twen 


st of Masri 


Coa 
n m ee 
to be G. confervoides Grev. picked bce 
Gay 


West. Harv 


Corallina Linneus. ‘A little coral. ? 
Cordylecladia Ag. Cord- e ue 
Cystoclonium Kitz. Bla dery 
Dasya 4g. Hairy. 
Delmata prenon botanist 
enc č 

i. hait For ‘Deamaresty 
Preneh naturalis be: 
Dictyosiphon Lyngby. Netted tu 
ne, Rae 
a Link. Intestines 


Ectocarpus 
Elachista D 
Don pha 
Euthora Ag. 


Fucus Z. Greek—a sen-weed.. 
Furcellaria Lam. Forked. 


'ce-like or jelly" 
Tam T pe seed (ho 


id Mrs. 

most gistingu aished of 

aiurita Harvey. For Henry 
of New York. 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 493 


Gymnogongrus Martius. Naked warts. Phyllophora Grev. Leaf-bearing. 
Plocamium Lam. Braided-hair, 
Halidrys Lyngby. Sea-oa Polyides Ag. Many-formed. 
Halosac so Pan ve = > b we g. Polysiphonia Grev. Many-tubed. 
Ha lurus 1 (2) Porphyra dg. Purple. 
ieiGeundtin Naaa For Hildenbrandt. Ptilota Ag. Pinuhted: 
ome ag Kü spt Necklace-hhirs. Punctaria Grev. Dotted.’ 
Hypnea Lam. Fr n Hypnum, a genus 
or eanea. Ralfsia Berkeley. For John Ralfs, an 


bac English diatomist. 
Laminaria Zam. From lamina, a plate Rhodome ela Ag. Red-black 


or blade. Rhodymenia Grev. - A red membrane. 
Leathesia Gray. For G. R. Leathes, a 
British 1 i alist. Sargassum Rumph. Sargazo in Spanish. 
Lyngbya Ag. For Hans Christian Lyng. Scinaia Bivona 
by, oes Danish algologist. peiro ae Harvey. Chain-seeds. 
ao g. For Soliére, a French algol- 
Melobesia Lam. Name of a sea- nymph. 
Mesogloia 4g. Viscid pith. spiiuectarin Lyngb. Gangrened (from the 
Myrionema Grev. Myriad threads. ithered fr eine tips). 
Mytiotrichia Harvey. Myriad hairs. Sp saal Harvey. Basket-like. , 
Nei ` Stilophora Ag. Dot- earing. s 
n Tozzetti. A crop of threads. Striaria Grev. Striated. ` 
Nitophyllum € Greville. petty leaf. 
. Nullipora Z. Without pore Ulva Linn. Ul—water in Celtic. 
Odonthalia Lyngb. Toothed-branch. Vaucheria De Candolle. For Vaucher, a 
scillatoria Vaucher. Oscillating. Swiss confervologist. 


% 


Peyssonelia Decaisne. For J. Peyssonel 
an algologist, x a 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 

Tue Unirep Srares Fis Commisston Rerorr.* —The valuable 
report of Prof. Baird, with the supplementary papers by Profs. 
Verrill, Gill, Smith and others, is not only a readable but exceed- 
ingly handy work for reference. How manifold are the subjects 
relating to a proper inquiry into the food and habits of our fishes 
may be gathered from the pages of this report.. Not only have we 
full data concerning the practical questions relating to the ‘fisheries, 

Prof. Baird has called to his aid a number of naturalists, 
chemists and physicists, all whose investigations bear on the sub- 
ject of our fisheries, the most abstruse matters having an imme- 
diate practical interest. It was thus found necessary to study the 
Peculiarities in the temperature of the water at different depths, 
"its chemical constitution, the percentage of carbonic acid gas and 
ordinary air, its currents, etc., besides thorough inv estigations with 
ie dredge. The report relating exclusively to the fisheries occu- 
Pies 280 pages of the volume, and is accompanied -by woodcuts, 
diagrams, and a map designed to show more particularly the dis- 


*United'States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. ` Part 1. Report on the Condition 

of the Sea Fisheri@s of. ‘the South oast of New England in 1871 and 1872. “By Spencer 

oe Commissioner. With Supplementary Papers. Washingtcn, 1873. Svo. pp. 
With a map and 40 plates. Verrill’s Report separate. Saa Agency. $3.00. 


494 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


Fig. 85. 


HAO 
4 EQ 
ù \ RESO 

KK NY xq 

V TA 

i 

\ J A 
ù “C)) 


RAS ; 7 
RAYA) 
j S (Pa 


WVO 
\ ON 


A ff 


ka 


Cirrhatulus grandis, living. 


f 
fe 
is 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 495 


Fig. 89. 


Fig. 90. 


. Megalops of Common Crab, 


496 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


tribution of animal life along the coast of Rhode Island and Mas- 
sachusetts south of Cape Cod. 

The report is also accompanied by a ‘‘ List of the Sea Weeds óf 
the South Coast of New England,” by Dr. W. G. Farlow; 4 
“Report upon the Invertebrate Animals of Vineyard Sound and 
the Adjacent Waters, with an Account of the Physical Characters — 
of the Region,” by Prof. A. E. Verrill, and a ‘Catalogue of the 
Fishes of the East Coast of North America,” by Dr. Theodore 
Gill. o : 

We shall concern ourselves chiefly with the admirable report of 
Prof. Verrill, which we would commend to our readers as 4 full 
and reliable manual of the marine zoology of our southern New 
England shore. It is illustrated by thirty-eight plates containing 
287 figures-(mostly drawn from life by Mr. Emerton) of the inver- — 
tebrate animals, a few of them illustrating early stages of the K 
crustacea. As an evidence of the thorough and detailed mannet — 
in which the subject is discussed, we may cite the chapters into 
which the work is divided :— Fauna of the Bays and “Sounds; — 
Fauna of the Brackish Waters of Estuaries, Harbors, ete. ; Faun) 
of the Colder Waters of the Ocean Shores and Outer Banks and 
Channels; Lists of Species found in the Stomachs of Fishes; 
Habits and Metamorphoses of the Lobster and other Crustacea 
Systematic Catalogue of the Invertebrates of Southern New Eng- 
land and Adjacent Waters. Under these heads will be fou : 
many remarks on the habits of the lower animals, which add much 
to the popular interest and value of the book. 

A good many new forms are described and figured from 1i 
mostly by Mr. Emerton, particularly among the worms and me 
tacea, and in the work of identifying and describing the latter, ©" 
author has been aided by Messrs. S. I. Smith and O. Harget | 
samples of the illustrations, which are simple outlines a 
Jewett process, we offer the following figures kindly loaned by a 
author. Fig. 84, Lerneonema radiata Stp. and Lüt., 2 °*™ 
parasitic on the menhaden. Fig. 85 represents the Cirrh 
grandis in a living state, and 86 the same from a specimen 
served in alcohol; Fig. 87, Clymenella torquata, Fig. 88, ; 
elegans. ` 

We have in the July Narturazst referred to the early e 
the lobster described by Mr. Smith, and now reproduce bis 
of the zoéa of the common crab (Cancer irror atus, Fig. 3 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 497 


larged seventeen diams.) as seen in the last stage just before it 
changes to the “megalops” stage (Fig. 90, enlarged thirteen 
diams.), 

We shall look forward with much interest to the next year’s 
report on the work done by the Fish Commission on the coast of 


Fig. 84. 


Lerneonema. 


ba 
Euchone., 


Maine, preliminary notices of which have already appeared in the 
“ American Journal of Science,” the “ Proceedings of the Ameri- 
can Association ” and this journal. 


— AMERICAN Frres.*—The long expected third volume of 
k series (the fourth was issued in 1869) has at length appeared. 
— elaborate monographs of two families of diptera en- 
‘—1. The family of Ortalide; 2. Review of the North 
American Trypetina. 
> the Ortalide are treated in the most exhaustive manner and 
views about their classification, given in a long introductory 
“umg oa th 
Monogra of the Diptera of = fee, Volume poeta prepared for the Smith- 


: ss iin, by H. Loew, Washi prr 


498 ‘REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


chapter (pp. 1-70), embrace all the Ortalide at present known 
from all parts of the world. The existing literature of the Orta 
lide is also fully reviewed.. The number of the North American — 
species of this family described in the body of the work is sixty- 


six. 

The North American Trypetide have been the subject of a 3 
monograph which appeared in the first volume of the same serios 
(1860). The additions to this family, received by Mr. Loew since 
that publication, were so numerous that he thought it worth while 
to return to the same subject again. The present work contains 
the descriptions of sixty-one North American Trypetidæ, thirty- 
eight of which were not contained in his first monograph. To ui 
are added twelve South American species, for the sake of com- ; 
parison with closely allied North American ones. tna 

To the volume are added four plates, with 116 figures, Tepr* . 
senting the wings of nearly all the described species. : 

The translation of the volume from the German. manuscript was l 
made by Baron R. Osten Sacken. The four volumes of the A0 
ographs, etc., hitherto published, contain the following families of l 
Diptera: Large monographs ; Dolichopodidæ (Vol. II), Tipu 
brevipalpi (Vol. 1V), Ortalidæ (Vol. III), Trypetidæ (Vols. : 
IIT). Smaller monographs (all in Vol. I): Sciomyzide, sh 
dridæ, Cecidomyidæ. 


Tue UNICELLULAR Nature OF THE Ixrusorra.* — Anything 
‘that comes from the pen of the distinguished profes I 
striking and original. The main idea of the present paper Br 
reaffirmation of the unicellular nature of the Infusoria, cil 
tinctly enunciated by Von Siebold in 1845, when he Hedel 
Ehrenberg’s well known conceptions of their organization. © 
divides the animal kingdom into two groups, the on". 
Protozoa, and the many-celled or: Metazoa, and accompa ae 
views with the inevitable phylogenetic table of the animal £! 

m. 

This view scarcely seems in accordance wi 
garding the structure of these so-called unicellular infusori 
the reader will turn to that remarkable book, “ Mind and , 
(p. 43) by the late Professor H. J. Clark, he will find the 


th known facts 


* Zur Morphologie der Infusorien; von Ernst Heckel. From the Jon g i 
Bd. vii. Leipzig, 1873. 8vo, pp. 54, with two plates. . oe 


BOTANY, 499 


celled structure of Actinophrys clearly described and figured. 
He remarks that “ though the cells are very distinct, they exhibit 
a low state of development, as low perhaps as could possibly ob- 
tain without failing to be genuine cells.” Farther on (p. 46) he 
claims that in this animal there are ‘ two distinct sets of tissues,” 
and speaks of an “outer layer of cells” and of a set of “ inner 
cells.” Until these parts are explained away we shall doubt the 
wisdom of the conclusions of the German observer, and call in 
question the naturalness of his classification of the animal king- 
dom into one-celled and many-celled animals. It seems less nat- 
ural than the old division into vertebrates and invertebrates. 


SIEBOLD’s ANATOMY OF THE INVERTEBRATES.* — We have con- 
stantly used this work, having found it the most valuable book of 
reference in the language, notwithstanding the fact that it is 
twenty years behind the times, and the classification is objection- 

le. This edition is exactly the same as that of 1854. 


BOTANY. 
Dr. Bearpstze has recently published a catalogue of the plants 
of Ohio, in the preface of which he speaks of “the late M. S. 
bb, of Illinois.” As inquiries are already addressed to us upon 
the subject, we wish to say that Mr. Bebb actually and actively 
lives, and we hope the day is far distant when this appellation can 
be rightfully appended to the name of this most enterprising and 
G. 


efficient of our middle-aged western botanists. — A. 


Dovuste THALICTRUM. —A day or two ago, Mr. Whiting, a stu- 
dent, brought me a novelty in the shape of a completely doubled 
flower of Thalictrum anemonoides. The stamens were all trans- 
formed to pink petals, giving to the flower much the appearance of 
à small specimen of the double flowered form of Prunus nana. 
There was but one flower, on a solitary pedicel, otherwise the plant 
Seemed to be normal. I shall secure the root if possible, and hope 
to perpetuate this very pretty sport. Is this doubled pink form 
common? — C. E. Bussey. 

Dr. W.G. Fartow, a valued contributor to the NATURALIST, 
has returned to Cambridge, after two years’ study of lower crypt- 


ta. ByC 
8vo, and notes by Waldo I. Burnett, M.D. Boston, 1874. James Campbell, 
PP. 470. $5.00. 


500 ZOOLOGY. 


ogamic botany with DeBary of Strasburg, Miiller of Geneva, and 
Thuret of Antibes. Through the month of August he takes charge 
of the summer botanical instruction at the Botanic Garden of 
Harvard University, which is for this month devoted to crypto- 
gamic botany exclusively, mainly to Fungi and Alge. We under- 
stand that he is engaged in the preparation of a manual of our 
New England Marine Algæ, which, for a beginner, is very much 
needed. 
ZOOLOGY. 

New Srecies or Norta American Bird. — On investigation of 
the interesting sandpiper from the Prybelov Islands, lately beg 
tioned by Mr. Dall in the Narura.ist (vii, 1873, 634) as Tring 
“ crassirostris,’ and given under this name in my “ Check List 
(No. 426 bis upon Mr. Harting’s identification, I found that the 
bird is not T. crassirostris but an apparently new species, which, 
in my late appendix to H. W. Elliott’s Report on the Prybelov 
Islands (1873), I have named Tringa ptilocnemis. As thew 
just mentioned is not generally accessible, owing to the smallness 


a. 


gi 

chestnut-brown, paler ochrey-brown and whitish; ` 
feather being black with one or another or all of these various edgingsi 
the coronal separated from the interscapular markings 9. 3 i 
white, dusky-streaked, cervical interval. Lower back, rump an 

tail coverts blackish-brown, onl 


e greater ones with broad definitely white tips. 
pure white, a few of the outermost and innermost also, 


ruptly paler, grayish; rest white or nearly so, with a ee 
Front and sides of head, supraciliary line, tufts of flank fea 


entire u 

perfectly continuous nor well-defined black area, and mark 
reast and sides with a few narrow sharp blackish shaft lines. 

auricular patch. Legs and bill dark. Length about 9°50 


ZOOLOGY. 501 


about 5; tail, 24; bill, 1:10 to 1-40; tarsus, 0°90 to 1:00; middle toe and 
claw 1.05 to 1.20. 

The other plumages, a series of measurements, general dis- 
cussion and description of eggs, with biographical notes by Mr. 
Elliott, will be found in his report. — ELLIOTT Cours. 


Occurrence or Japyx IN THE Unitep States. — While engaged 
at the end of April in exploring the Mammoth Cave and adjoining 
caverns with Prof. Shaler of the Kentucky Geological Survey, I 
detected under a stone in a small cave a few rods north of White’s 
Cave (which may be called White’s Cave, Jr.) and from 40 to 50 
feet from the mouth, consequently in partial daylight, a specimen 
of Japyx in company 
with two Scolopendrella Fig. 91. 
Americana Packard, our « 


Mammoth Cave. It here 
occurred, just as I have 
found the European J. 
solifugus near Vienna, 


tails of mouth-parts). 
It is quite different from 
the Mexican J. Saus- 
surii of Humbert from 
Santa Cruz and Orizaba. 

Pye subterraneus, as this new species may be called, may at 
Once be distinguished from the other species by the much greater 


502 ZOOLOGY. 


length of the abdomen, the head and thorax taken together being 
more than twice contained in the abdomen, while in J. Saussurit 
they are two-thirds as long as the abdomen. The 8th abdominal 
segment, also, is nearly twice as long as in the Mexican species. 
The head is broader than in J. Saussurii, but narrower and pointed 
a little more than in J. solifugus. The forceps are much nearer J. 
solifugus than the Mexican species, and is much longer than in either 
species. Length -58 inch; the Mexican specimen measured about 
an inch. It is whitish, with the two terminal segments honey yer 
low; the forceps much darker. We shall in a succeeding number 
figure this interesting form, which is of extraordinary interest, as it 
is an ally of Campodea, now regarded as a stem-form of the higher 
insects by Brauer, Lubbock and others.— A. S. PackarD, Ji. 


Tue “ HATEFUL” GRASSHOPPER IN New Encranp.—Thongh the 
ravages by grasshoppers in New England are caused by the red- | 
legged locust (Caloptenus femur-rubrum), it seems that for several , 
years there have been specimens of Caloptenus spretus from Maine 
and Massachusetts in the Museum of the Peabody Academy of 
Science. They have been hitherto confounded with C. femur-rib l 
rum, but are at once distinguishable by the shorter male cerci and 
fhe notched terminal ventral segment. The interesting fact about 
these eastern C. spretus is, that they are of precisely the same FE ; 
and markings of C. femur-rubrum, being much smaller and with 
much shorter wings than the western race, a difference i : 
due almost wholly to climatic causes. A number of surmises ed 
garding sexual and natural selection and mimicry might be y : 
dulged in, but the facts that might suggest them can be exp uh 
by a reference to the different meteorological conditions by r w 
the two races are environed. In Dr. Hayden’s forthcoming Er : 
nual Report on the Geology of Colorado,” the reader will form a 
number of facts bearing on the variation in size of body, and 10% 
of wings and color in eastern and western examples 43 ihe 
species of moths, the conclusions from which are borne out by 
study of these grasshoppers.—A. S. PACKARD, Jr. 


A RE ee ee 


Tue Kiıxcrets IN New Jersey.—If your correspo 
Abbott, had only been aware that it has been our aim gp knowh 
-our “ History of North American Birds,” to state nothing ao 
which is only surmised there would have been no ocean: 
“surprise” on his part, that our account of the Reguli r 


ndent, Dr 7 
ghoti 


: 
GEOLOGY. » 503 
made to conform to this rule. It is never safe to infer from the 
mere presence of a bird in any particular locality in the breeding 
season that it neccessarily breeds there. I could give you in- 
stances without number where birds are found in summer in local- 
ities, where, so far as one can ever be sure of a negative, we know 
they do not breed. We have seen the black-poll warbler in eastern 
Massachusetts as late as the 10th of June. Yet who supposes it 
ever breeds here? Dr. Abbott’s account escaped my notice, but I 
certainly could not have made it the occasion of any change in 
my statement that the Regulus was not then known to breed in the 
United States. I could only have referred to the interesting fact ` 
of its occurrence, as stated, as suggestive of its possibility. 
Nothing short of its actual nest and eggs would have justified me 
in speaking of its breeding as a certainty. —Tnomas M. Brewer. 


Zoorocy 1s Berarum.—The Belgium Academy has lately is- 
sued two large octavo volumes, as memorials of its hundredth an- 
niversary. The second volume is of great interest to zoologists 
as it contains a review of the progress of zoology in Belgium, by 
the veteran naturalist Prof. P. J. Beneden. 


GEOLOGY. 

SMALL size or THe Brain in Tertiary Mammars.—At the- 
last meeting of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
June 17th, Prof. Marsh made a communication on the size of the 
brain in Tertiary Mammals. His researches on this subject have 
been mainly confined to the larger extinct mammals which he had 
obtained in the Rocky Mountain region, and the results are of pe- 
culiar interest. The Eocene mammals all appear to have had small 
brains, and in some of them the brain cavity was hardly more ca- 
pacious than in the higher reptiles. The largest Eocene mammals 
are the Dinocerata, which were but little inferior to the elephant in 
bulk. In Dinoceras Marsh, the type genus, the brain cavity is not 
More than one-eighth the average size of that in existing Rhinocer- 
oses, In the other genera of this order, Tinoceras Marsh and 
Uintatherium Leidy, the smallness of the brain was quite as re- 
markable. The gigantic mammals of the American Miocene are 
the Brontotheridæ, which equalled the Dinocerata in size. In 

herium Marsh, the only genus of the family in which the 
skull is known, the brain cavity is very much larger than in the- 


504 GEOLOGY. 


Eocene Dinoceras, being about the size of the brain in the Indian 
Rhinoceros. In the Pliocene strata of the West, a species of Mas- 
todon is the largest mammal, and although but little superior in 
absolute size to Brontotherium, it had a very much larger brain, 
but not equal to that of existing Proboscidians. The Tapiroid 
_ ungulates of the Eocene had small brain cavities, much smallet 
than their allies, the Miocene Rhinocerotide. The Pliocene rep- 
resentatives of the latter group had well developed brains, but 

proportionally smaller than living species. A similar progression 

in brain capacity seems to be well marked in the equine mammals, 

especially from the Eocene Orohippus, through Miohippus and Ar- 

chitherium of the Miocene, Pliohippus and Hipparion of the Pie 

ocene, to the recent Equus. In other groups of mammals, likewise, 
so far as observed, the size of the brain shows a corresponding M- — 
crease in the successive subdivisions of the Tertiary. These facts . 
have a very important bearing on the evolution of mammals, and — 
open an interesting field for further investigation. 


Derr Sea Sounpines. — The “ Tuscarora,” Commander Belk- 
nap, duly reached Honolulu from San Diego, California, having been . 
engaged in taking deep-sea soundings. She made a straight ah : 
sage, not deviating twenty miles on either side of a direct 
drawn between the two ports. During the passage sixty- , 
soundings were made, at a distance of forty miles apart. , 
deepest sounding — the forty-ninth after leaving the coast—"® 
found to be 3,054 fathoms, while the mean depth was 2,562 wai a 
oms. At a distance of 600 miles from the American piney: a 
depth was found to be 494 fathoms, and at 1,050 miles, pe a 
oms. The average temperature below 1,200 fathoms er: B 
to be about thirty-five degrees Fahrenheit. From Honol ” ] 
Japan sixty casts were taken at intervals of about 50 miles. 162 l 
the first 95 miles from Honolulu, the depth increased at “a J a 
ft. to a mile, reaching 2,418 fathoms in lat. 21° N., long. 1 a 
W. The average depth of all the casts taken during thi which 
was 2,450 fathoms. Between the mountains (all but one s ie 
are entirely submarine) the bed of the ocean was very ie os a 
gep depth was found at lat. 22° 44' N., long. 168 m 

3262 fathoms. ; 

Bottom temperatures, as in other parts of the Pacific, = : 

from 33°-2 F. to 34°°6 below 1,800 fathoms, whatever ao 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 505 


tional depth. Between 1,200 and 1,800 fathoms the temperature 
rises slowly to about 35° at the former depth. From 1,200 fath- 
oms to the surface the thermometer rose steadily ; surface temper- 
atures ranging from 70° to 76° F. 

The voyage occupied twenty-eight days, and the weather was 
exceptionably favorable. There are only sixty-five inhabitants on 
Peele Island, and the ‘‘ Tuscarora” was the first visit of a naval 
vessel for more than seventeen years; Commodore Perry stopped 
at the island in 1853. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 

TROGLODYTES IN ALasKa.—In 1872, Mr. William H. Dall made 

some interesting discoveries of prehistoric remains in a cave on 
Amaknak Island, situated in Captain’s Bay, Oonalaska, which he 
supposed exhausted the subject. In 1873, however, he found that 
he had left undisturbed a still lower stratum, and finally cleaned 
out the entire cave down to the rock. He ascertained that 
the whole interior of the cave had been painted over with a red 
pigment. or chalky ore of iron, above which was a bed of organic 
mould about two feet in its greatest depth, in which were found 
three skeletons, surrounded by a rough sort of sarcophagus built ~ 
of the jaws and ribs of whales, and around them were a large 
number of implements, especially of stone knives. This was 
Covered in turn by a layer six inches or less in thickness of refuse 
material, the remains of repasts on marine animals, shell-fish, fish, 
and echini. Scattered irregularly over this were broken and worn 
implements of quite a different character from those found with 
he dead; and the whole indicated that this was only a resting- 
Place of parties who used it temporarily while waiting an oppor- 
tunity to cross the surf to the adjacent island. It was down to 
this lower stratum that the labors of the previous season had ex- 
tended but without disturbing it. 

A stratum of this latter portion was covered by a bed of shin- 
gle, evidently introduced by water, and supposed to be the actual 
bottom of the deposit. Mr. Dall is of the opinion that the skele- 
tons found here are the oldest yet discovered in the Aleutian re- 
Sion, although not approaching in antiquity those discovered on 

ountain, or the Neanderthal. He thinks the cave was 
‘used as a burial-place, the mould over three skeletons having 


506 ANTHROPOLOGY... 


accumulated by the decay of animal matter and of rubbish; and 
that the débris from the repasts of occasional visitors had been 
gathering for a great many years. An unusually high tide or 
storm probably brought in the shingle from the adjacent sea-beach, 
and after this the cave was again used as a deposit for the dead. 
Nothing was discovered indicating in any way that the place had 
been used or visited by the white races. 

The total number of crania obtained by Mr. Dall amounted to 
thirty-six, besides many hundred implements of bone, ivory, a 
stone, and many carvings of wood and other objects, presenting 
evidence of the existence of large and flourishing communities 
numbering thousands of inhabitants where now none or only rem- 
nants of population exist. : 

Underneath the old villages were found still more ancient 
kitchen heaps of echini, fish bones, and edible shell-fish many feet 
in thickness, the age and time taken in forming them hardly we 
approximated or counted even in centuries. Only in the apps 
strata were seen the indications of progress in hunting and fishing, 
afterward so notable that even the sperm whale succumbed to the 
attacks: of these hardy canoe-men. Their progenitors were CON- 
tent to pick echini from the shore and mussels from the rocks, and 
hardly any implements could be found in the refuse of their re- 
pasts—the accumulation of centuries. é 

After them large villages of solidly constructed homer ee 
and probably at the height of their progress and numerical In 
crease the almost equally barbarous Russian of Siberia fell upon 
them, and nearly swept them from the face of the earth.—Harpers 

eekly. 


Ecyrrian Arcuaorocy.—At the meeting of the Anthropolog- 
ical Institute, June 9, Prof. Busk, F. R. S., president, in we 
Sir John Lubbock, Bart., read a paper on the discovery of : yee 
implements in Egypt. The author began with a sketch yar 
writings and opinions of M. Arcelin and Dr. Hamy, who f the 
tained that the flint implements found along the valley cae ; 
Nile, including a hatchet of the St. Acheul type at Deir-ekBA | 
indicated the existence formerly of a true stone age thers oS 
Western Europe. MM. Mortillet and Broca concurred pe 
view. On the other hand Dr. Pruner-Bey, and especially f 
Lepsius, had expressed the opinion that most of the objects * 


MICROSCOPY. 507 


scribed, such as the flint flakes, were naturally produced. M. 
Chabas also took the same view as Dr. Lepsius, and denied the 
existence of any evidence of a stone age in Egypt or elsewhere. 
On the occasion of a late visit to Egypt with the object of getting 
conclusive personal evidence on the question, the author found 
worked flints at various spots along the Nile Valley, especially in 
the valley of the tombs of the kings of Thebes, and at Abydos, 
and after carefully weighing the facts and arguments brought for- 
ward by MM. Lepsius and Chabas, he was disposed to agree with 
MM. Arcelin and Hamy in considering that these flint implements 
really belonged to the stone age, and were ante-Pharaonic. Sir 
John exhibited a full series of the Egyptian flint implements 
found by himself during his visit, and the paper concluded with a 
minute description of each specimen. Prof. Owen, F. R. S., then 
read a paper on the ethnology of Egypt. Since the observations 
recorded in 1861, by Dr. Pruner-Bey, on the race-characters of 
the ancient Egyptians, mainly based on the characters of skulls, 
evidences, in the author’s opinion, of a more instructive kind have 
been discovered, chiefly by M. Mariette-Bey. They consist of 
portrait-sculptures, chiefly statues, found in tombs accompanied 
by hieroglyphic inscriptions revealing the name, condition, and 
date of decease. A study of those works led to the conclusion 
that three distinct types were indicated. (1) The primal Egypt- 
` lan, bearing no trace of negro or Arab, but more nearly matched 
by a high European facies of the present day. (2) The type of 
the conquering race of Shepherd Kings, or Syro-Arabian, exempli- 
fied in the Assyrian sculptures. (3) The Nubian Egyptian, typ- 
ified in the bas-relief figure of Cleopatra in the Temple of Denderah. 
In conclusion, the professor drew a graphic picture of the high 
State of civilization attained by the Primal Egyptian race, whose 
exquisite works, done six thousand years ago, are now rendered 
accessible to man. The paper was amply illustrated by a series 
of photographs, maps and diagrams. — Nature. 


MICROSCOPY. 

Iuprovements rx Insect Mountixc. —The lesson of the fly in 
amber was one which took us a long time to learn, or rather which 
we never learned well until, now, its whole secret comes to us 
from India. Mr. Staniforth Green, of Ceylon, has sent a collec- 


508 : MICROSCOPY. 


tion of mounted insects to London, which have been presented to 
the Queckett club by Mr. Curties. They are represented by 
Messrs. Curties, Ingpen, Loy, McIntire and others as well pre- 
served and satisfactory objects, free from cloudiness, air bubbles, 
or deterioration of tissue as well as from distortion of form. Not 
being flattened or eviscerated, they show to great advantage in the 
binocular microscope. A few had been soaked in potash solution, 
but these were the least satisfactory members of the collection. 
The largest and best part of the objects had been immersed in the 
medium without maceration or other preparation. The smaller 
insects were simply killed by immersion in ether and immediately 
transferred to the soft balsam; the larger insects were similarly 
killed in ether, then dried a few days under slight pressure i 
tween the leaves of a book, and afterward soaked in turpentine 
and transferred from that to balsam. The balsam containing t 
insects was kept in the tropical sun for some time, until all moist- 
ure was dissipated and the balsam had pervaded the whole of the 
tissues. The muscles and other internal and external organs, not 
having been disorganized by potash or in any other way, were well 
preserved and capable of inspection; and in many cases polarized | 
well. Small delicate insects which are difficult of preservation 0 
even of study in any other way, are most successful in this; seh 
for instance, aphides, small and frail diptera, hymenoptera, minute 
spiders, eggs, larva, pupa, ete. This method is of value not only : 
o the microscopist, but also to the entomologist, placing anm 
frail specimens out of reach of dust, mould, ants, and 
dangers which threaten dried specimens. a 
We have tried this method largely, both with thin balsam, 
with hard balsam dissolved in chloroform and in benzol, and pe 
succeeded with all. Probably experience will show that -i 
best adapted to certain objects. A water-bath is a good ar A : 
for the tropical sun. When the balsam is sufficiently hard wa 
jects should be mounted in it in glass cells. Doubtless the 88 
blast cells will prove to be adapted to this purpose. 


Measure ANcuLAR Aperture. — Mr. Wenham, in a 
gain accuracy in measuring the angular aperture of dry objec ith 
would like to cut off all stray light that might enter the lens T 
out being capable of forming an image, by placing over the: se 

_ tive a conical nozzle having a small aperture in its ap® 


MICROSCOPY. 509 


aperture would correspond to the focus of the lens, and the nozzle 
would just include the cone of rays capable of forming an image 
and would exclude all false rays of any considerable angle. This 
method would be inconvenient, however, and as the angle is meas- 
ured by a horizontal movement a vertical slit will be a satisfactory 
substitute. For high powers the slit must have thin edges; and 
it must be capable of adjustment to the width of focus of the lens, 
His arrangement is easily made and used. A plate three inches 
long and one inch wide has a central aperture nearly one-half inch 
wide, the edges of this opening being bevelled away below so as to 
admit a large angle of light. Upon this plate lies a glass slip 
about 2 in.X4 in., pressed against at one end by a spring, and at 
the other end by a screw, so that it can be easily slid backwards 
and forwards under the two staples (one inch apart) which hold it. 
upon the surface of the plate. The slip is formed by the edges of 
two slips of platinum foil (+001 thick) one of which is cemented 
with Canada balsam upon the glass slip, while the other is fastened 
under one of the staples so as to lie on the glass slip but not move 
with it. These platinum slips never overlap ; but their edges may 
be brought in contact, or may be separated as widely as desired by 
means of the set-screw pressing against one end of the glass slip 
which carries one of them. In measuring angles the usual method 
of rotating the instrument horizontally is employed; only this 
apparatus lies upon the stage with its slit in focus of the objec- 
tive and adjusted in width so as barely to include the whole 
breadth of the focus. If the stage of the microscope is too thick 
to admit full angle of light, the apparatus may be arranged below 
the stage and the objective focussed down to it. 


CataLoguixe Microscopic Specimens. — At the Medical Micro- 
Seopical Society, a paper by Mr. Groves was read on the subject 
of cataloguing and arranging microscopic specimens. Though 
Classification was deemed necessary in large cabinets, yet it was 
Considered entirely undesirable in small ones, and in both cases 
the catalogue and not the arrangement was relied upon for finding 
objects. The method of cataloguing recommended consists of an 
ordinary alphabeted note book in which, under the proper alpha- 

l heading, every portion of each specimen is independently 
entered and the slide referred. to by numbers or otherwise. Thus 
one excellent slide which shows well a number of points of struct- 


510 MICROSCOPY. 


ure will be entered under several headings and be used to illus- 
trate all these points, while under the usual methods of classifying 
slides in series, a number of duplicate slides would be required to 
fill up the different series. All difficulty in finding specimens is 
also positively obviated. 

The president, Mr. Jabez Hogg, expressed the belief that the 
proposed plan would supersede all others now in use. 


Sanp-sLast Cetts.— Mr. Henry F. Hailes contributed to the 
Queckett Club an account of a new and probably valuable appli- 
cation of the sand-blast process. It had occurred to him that this 
process might be employed to sink cells in glass slips for micro- 
scopical mounting ; and he applied to the inventor, Gen. Tilghman, 
who had a supply sunk in an apparently satisfactory manner. Mr. 
C. Baker, the optician of High Holborn, has undertaken to sup- 
ply these new cells to the trade. They can be sunk of any de- 
sired size and shape, and possess the positive advantage of having 
no joint at the bottom of the cell. Of course the floor and sides 
of the cell are rough or “ ground ” surfaces, but this is not a seri- 
ous disadvantage. For opaque objects the ground surface fon 
an agreeable background; for objects in balsam, the refractive 
index of the medium corresponds so nearly with that of glass that 
the granulations of the glass surface are optically obliterated and 
disappear entirely ; for media of less refractive power than bal- 
sam, it is necessary to varnish first the ground surface with per 
and allow it to dry before introducing the fluid. The none 7 
seem particularly available for foraminifera, insects haer à : 
without flattening, and other clumsy specimens, whether 1m air or 
balsam or glycerine. 


AxorTHER MiıcroscoricaL Cement. — Mr. T. Charters „e ; 
recommended to the Queckett Club four or five parts of this 
yellow beeswax melted with one part of Canada balsam po ; 
purpose. Like the electrical cement, and the paraffine, which i 
already come into general use for the same purpose, it 1$ 5008 
melted, on a hot wire, after the manner of soldering; sels 
as cool, and hence cannot run in under the cover however e 
cell may be, and can be instantly loosened by warming if Iti 
is to be repaired or the object dismounted for any pare we 
especially applicable to dry mounting, to temporarily = a 
jects for early use, and to fasten apparatus where Contry? 


NOTES. 511 


growing cells, etc., are extemporized for immediate use and with- 
out care as to their durability. ; 


New AprrLICAaTION or Srarninc TO ParmoLocy.— Dr. H. C. 
Major claims that healthy and morbid tissues are affected by log- 
wood staining-fluid— with such different degrees of facility as to 
afford a really valuable means of discrimination. Thus staining 
becomes a means of diagnosis as well as of defining the structure 
of cells, etc. He instances sections of brain in cases of acute 
mania and of senile atrophy, in the former the gray cortical layer 
and in the latter the internal white substance being most deeply 
stained and best defined. 


NOTES. 

Tue governor of Minnesota calls on the general government 
for aid, as owing to the ravages of the grasshoppers for two years 
.past “ many thousands are now (July 8) suffering for food.” An 
“utter and wide-spread destitution exists in the southwestern 
Counties of this state among the new settlers, whose crops have 
been destroyed for two years.” He asks for contributions of 
money and provisions to relieve the immediate necessities of 
the sufferers. Why should not the grasshopper be eaten in turn? 
The grasshopper or locust of the east is universally eaten in por- 
tions of Africa and western Asia, and pronounced a nutritious and 
palatable article of diet by Arab chiefs as well as Hottentot sav- 
- ages. They are eaten roasted whole, minus the legs, or roasted and 
powdered. We would recommend that experiments be made as to. 
the best mode of preparing the locust for food. They should be 
thoroughly cooked to guard against parasitic worms. Not willing 
to urge the use of grasshoppers as food for others without first 
eating them ourselves, we may say that we have found the grass- 
hopper, first killed by boiling water, and then fried in butter, at 
least as palatable as many articles of food eaten by civilized people ; 
and to people actually famishing, as is said to be the case in Min- 
nesota, it will be worth their while to avail themselves of a food 
stuff which millions perhaps of people of other lands regard as 
wholesome. 
: Tar Proceedings of the 22d, or Portland meeting of the Amer- 
ican Association make a much more bulky volume than any of its 
Predecessors. It is noticeable that while the papers in the section 


512 BOOKS RECEIVED. 


of ikonina Physics and Chemistry, occupy perhaps no more 
space than usual, those in Natural History fill 409 pages. The 
papers are perhaps up to the average, but we notice two or three 
that might have been weeded out by the publishing committee. 
The volume appears with a commendable degree of promptness. 


G. R. Crorcu of England, known for his studies on the 
Coleoptera, died the last of June at Philadelphia, of consumption. 
He was the author of several valuable papers on Clo 
an indefatigable collector. He lately spent a year in Californi 
and Vancouver Island and adjacent regions, making extensive ee 
lections, mostly contained in the Museum of Comparative Zoology: 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


anguservations on the genus Unio; with Descriptions of New Species, and Descriptions of Eniry 
nd soft Parts. Also New species Of Str beget and Limnæidæ. By Isaac Ley 
Piyiadepia, 1874, 22 plates. pp. 74. 4to. -Mareb, 1874, 
a ? a. 13 of tae Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Partl. Jan.: 
pla 5. vo. ' 
Bulletin gS de la Societe d’Acclimatation. Paris. Fevrier, 1874. 8vo. 
i Sev rg ead Report of the Provost to the Trustees of the Peabody Institute of Pie Ciy iy of Bak 
more, i p iladelphia 
Pigg See age nora Report of the Board of Managers of the Zoological Society of Ph z 
p Tra nsmis on of Dis eas t P iiet Paper, Consumption. By A. C. Hamlin, of Bangor, 18%. 
p: sig 
Transfusion, By A. C. Hamlin, of Bangor, 1874. pp. 14. 
Annotated List of pa ds of Utah, By H. W. Hensha ai Fada 


Preceatings s of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. For 1872-73. VoL ath No. S p 
he Pr neip of pa al By W. 8 Stanley g a MacMillan and Doa rye at 
with plate. pp.487. 8vo. "Prite 500. ii. ee - 
eedings of the Boston Society of Natural History. 1874, Vol. xvi. Part 


orate on the Mammals of huang of Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. dirs 
Mar Sg ist. p. 43-66. 8vo 
Me 3 
Al 


a gare Variation in Color among North American Squirrels. By J. A. Allen. 
74. pp 
ae aphical Variation in North American Birds. By J. A. Allen, Boston, 1872. 
0. 
hiefly Anatomical. Presented at the Portland Meeting of the Americ A 
for ti Adeancemeni of Science, August, 1873. By Burt G. Wilder. salem, isi pee 
0. th re 
Bulle tin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. Warren, Johnson and Co., Pr 
x ie. No. I bn Pp. i04. 8vo. pun . late, on- PP. 
Pla Monthly Report of the Department of Agriculture for June, 1874, Washingt 
Verhandlungen der kaiserlich-koniglichen Zoologisch-botanischen Geseltschaft in Wiens © 
xxiii. wie, 874, pp.740. 8vo. Maes plate ad On photograph, i Bri 
hand dlungen herausgegeben v naturwiss ed ti tlichen Vereine zu ; 
(Schluss) Heft iv. Band 4, Heft 1. aroi Ed. l Mulier, Bremen. “1873-1874. 8vo 
Tabeilen uber den Flacheninhalt des B en Staats, den Waesers' n 
n 


Di pper ` Ma thematic 

ett Gian ARATE ie sts a a 
1d 5 «| . 

ft. Wien by age ebel. Berlim 


Folge | Band vii vii visk piatek, 522 ond Band val, Syo. 
Ate der ten, pp. b22 Naturforschen pe. fee Freunde zu Ber 


Fin n Mensuel de la Societe d’Acclimatation. 3me Serie. Tome 1 No.3. 
Berliner, piaren NG Jahrg. xvii = poe plate. Jabrg 


Pake Dek D, Cove, aes ins 1 ppb Se eai Wina a Piene 
ada. T W. P 


bone real. toi. pp. 47. "io. “With 


Wake} 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vol. VIII.—SEPTEMBER, 1874.—No. 9. 
TTBS ORMYOD TD 


THE AGRICULTURAL ANT.* 


BY DR. G. LINCECUM. 


Since my return from Mexico, I have discovered several traits 
in the character of the Myrmica molefaciens that I had not noticed 
before. In fact, the circumstances that have developed the facts 
Tam about to notice had not transpired. 

In 1848, the year I came to Long Point, there was but one 
agricultural ant city within a mile of the place. This nest was 
Situated in a nearly barren little spot on top of an elevation, 
underlaid with stratified sandstone. Here there was but little 
stass and weeds to interfere with their seed collecting labors. 
The ant rice which they so carefully cultivate was flourishing in a 
regular circle near the outer border, but inside of the pavement. 
There were little patches of the same grass scattered about on the 
little glade which had doubtless been planted there by some exper- 
‘enced ant, for it had been neatly cleared of all other vegetables, 
m fact cultivated by them. 

_ ~e entire surrounding country consists of very rich black 
_ Prairie soil, and was bearing a very heavy coat of cowfodder 

chy In this dense coat of grass the mound builder could not 
travel; but was content to confine himself to a single city in the 
: ‘pen district, until a road that passed near the pavement had been 
: “amped out through the deep grass. This occurred about two 


* Communicated to the Smithsonian Institution, P ed by Pp 
fessor Henry, 


af 


 ‘Sotence 7 20°ording to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF 
: j in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIIL. 33 (513) 


514 THE AGRICULTURAL ANT. 


years after my first acquaintance with the above named city. It 
was interesting to observe how soon they availed themselves of 
the use of: the clean hard-trodden road. They were seen running 
along in trains half a mile from their city, and it was not long 
before new cities were seen along the side of the road. The first 

- one made its appearance about eighty yards from the old city and 
just far enough from the road to be out of the way of the passing 
teams. ‘ 

These new cities, which, in the course of three years, made theit 
appearance at intervals of about eighty yards along the side of the 
road for more than a mile, were never seen before; they were a 
year and a half old. One of their peculiarities is, that with bits 
of stick, little balls of soil and the like, they conceal the entrance 
of a new city until they consider themselves sufficiently strong to 
make their appearance and sustain themselves among the nests of 
other ants. They are then seen clearing out and paving & consid- 
erable circular space around the entrance to their city. Some old 
settlements have a pavement fifteen feet in diameter and a mound , 
in the centre a foot high. 

And now the increasing cattle made the grass thinner, and the 
ants swarming out spread their cities in all directions at short 
intervals (thirty yards is about the average) until the prairies af 
full of them. aes 

They do not, like the bees, throw off colonies, to g0 out and 
build up a new kingdom. It is a very different process Ons 
certain day in summer all the males and females—they ee 
assemble, as if by appointment, from all the surrounding ne") 5 
some suitable place; generally in the smooth road, where "a 
seize each other, three or four males to one female and wa : 
on the ground eagerly, give the idea of a battle ; which 
less observer is sure to report as such. It is, howevely 
but a rampant amative furor, which continues thre 
when the female becoming satisfied with her numerous, Cag" 
makes shift to tear herself loose from them and make her : 
At first she climbs up some little weed or spear of grass," 
to rest for a few minutes, when she spreads her glassy hiss? 
the last time, and flies with the wind until she is = 
some counter current casts her to the ground. She soem be 

* great haste, and running around, she soon selects ere hen 
she energetically goes to work digging a small hole, ¥ 


4 
is 
: 
iy 


2 


THE AGRICULTURAL ANT. 515 


she has deepened sufficiently for her wings to prevent her free in- 


gress, she deliberately withdraws and with her sharp mandibles 
clips them off. She now continues her labors until the hole is six 
or seven inches deep, and excavating a small cell at the bottom, 
she closes the passage above, and remains sleeping in her little cell 
nine or ten days. If she survives that long, she comes out, pro- ` 
cures some food and goes to work, deposits twenty or thirty eggs, 
raises them to maturity ;—they are all workers—and after this 
the queen or mother ant is seen outside no more. She conceals 
the entrance to her kingdom, keeps her workers busy, increases 
their number rapidly, and in the course of eighteen months, find- 
ing her armies sufficiently strong, she throws off all disguise and 
clearing a considerable space around the gate of the city com- 
mences to pave it and to build up a monument or pyramid. This 
last is a public work as well as the pavement, and it is carried on 
slowly by the police, who are always found on and around the en- 
virons of the city. 

Thus have I partially described the origin and progress of a 
Single successful mother ant of the mound building species. 
Were all that fly away from those astonishing connubial assem- 
blies equally successful, it would require but very few years for 
meri to overpeople the whole earth. But nature, as she has done 
în all other races of animal life, has made provisions for the 
destruction of the superfluous queens. Great numbers of them 
never return from the little cell they have prepared for themselves 
at the bottom of their new home. They die either from having 
Packed the dirt in the hole above them, or from being found by the 
hunters or soldiers of the surrounding kingdoms, whose custom it 
” whenever they discover one of these new beginnings for a city, 
invariably to dig out and assassinate the occupant. Many birds 
are fond of the females of this species of ant, devouring all they 
can find. There are many other causes for the failure of these fat 
Meens which, according to my observations on the subject, result 
in the conclusion, that not exceeding one in a thousand of those 

imning a nest survives and builds up a colony. 
T have witnessed several of their grand connubial festivals. 
i, saw in 1858, that occupied a plat of ground 107 yards in 
ey and ten yards wide. The ground was thickly strewn with 
AP T When I first discovered them they were coming from 
ery direction, and lighting down on the above described plat by 


516 THE AGRICULTURAL ANT. 


tens of thousands. It was a great day with the ants; and soon ` 
the place was so completely carpeted with them that it was impos 
sible to walk among them and not crush them. te 
In the course of three hours the males began to show the dread- 
ful effects of their dissolute course. They began rapidly to die. — 
The females would wring themselves loose from the males and fy — 
off, leaving them exhausted and struggling in death. They had 
fulfilled their mission, and the ground long before night was 
covered with their dead bodies. r 
I visited the place the next morning ; the wind had driven them — 
into the little gullies in the road, and there could not have been . 
less than a bushel of them. Not a female dead or alive to be seen 
anywhere amongst them. But not far off, and in the direction the 
wind was blowing at the time they made their escape from their 
_ prostrate and dying lovers, could be seen countless numbers of . 
little black piles of earth which had been thrown out of their holes — 
during the night. There were fifteen to twenty of these new pe 7 
rows to every square rod, and they were seen in that proportion 
for more than a mile. So itis plain, if there were no counteracting i 
influences, to see that they would soon occupy every available 
space. Few of them, however, proved successful, for the whole 
prairie had already been fully stocked with them. Pavement 
were to be seen every thirty or forty yards, but too new eri 
sess any mounds. Their pavements were flat when in 1868 L 
away; and now I have got back in 1873 I find they have ey 
great improvements; all have raised mounds, some of them q ae 
large. The progress they have made on their mounds and pave” 
ments is very conspicuous. ak 
This species of ant subsists almost entirely On small A 
great quantities of which they store away in their granary a 
supply food for winter. During rainy seasons in the £ Ris 
months it happens right often that the ground becoming © 
rated, the water penetrates their granaries, and swe ies 
their seeds. In this emergency they bring out the ee 
the first fair day, and exposing it to the sun until near W.G : 
take in all that is not actually sprouted. I saw them 1n Gr 
trey’s farm one day have out on a flat rock as much as 4 k 
wheat sunning. I wanted to see how they would g Kime 
so much back again, and returned again that evening JUS°" 
to see their hosts come out and carry it in in five minutes. 


AZALEA VISCOSA. 517 


There are many other interesting achievements performed by 
this sagacious race of insects. I have recently discovered a great 
difference in their mental operations and capacities. Individuals 
there are which possess great intellectual superiority to the com- 
mon laboring classes, which is manifested in the fact that they 
assume the leadership in all their important public works and 
army movements. Some are much more sagacious and cautious 
in avoiding traps and dangerous contrivances set for them by the 
scarcely superior human genus. ; 

One of our Germans invented a very destructive ant trap. It 
is set over the entrance to their city, and is so contrived, that 
going or coming it is sure to entrap them; but not all of them. 
Occasionally a well formed fellow is observed to arrive at the top 
of the precipice, where he stops and gravely and cautiously sur- 
veys the awful abyss below, filled with frantic and terribly dis- 
tressed thousands—who have incautiously precipitated themselves 
into inevitable ruin—and after viewing the dreadful and disas- 
trous condition of his fellow laborers, he seems to understand the 
true nature of the misfortune, and turning from the irremediable 
calamity, hastens down the inclined place into the grass weeds, 
beyond the reach of further observation. 

Quite a number of them are seen to examine and hastily fly 
from the entrance of this destructive trap. 


AZALEA VISCOSA, A FLY-CATCHER. 


BY W. W. BAILEY. 

HE many curious observations published of late in regard to 
vegetable fly-catchers have opened my eyes to such phenomena 
as are presented in my forest walks. As is well known to all 
botanists, our sweet swamp azalea (Azalea viscosa) has its 
red on the outside with innumerable clammy and 

glandular hairs. Éach hair is a prolongation of the cuticle and 
48 surmounted by a purple and globular gland. In the bud, these 
hairs appear to cover the whole surface of the flower, but when 
the corolla expands, they are seen to occupy the midrib of the 


518 AZALEA VISCOSA. 


petals as well as the tube of the corolla. These glandular hairs 
are efficacious fly-catchers, but what the object is in thus securing 
insect prey, I will not pretend to state. a 
I have been amusing myself, if any such apparently cruel — 
occupation can be considered entertaining, in watching the cap — 
ture of flies by the azaleas. When I first brought the flowers 
home, many small insects, as winged ants, were entrapped amidst 
the hairs. These have remained alive several days, still vainly : 
_ Struggling for freedom. As the houseflies are abundant in my ; 
room, it occurred to me that I might extirpate the pests, and at 1 
the same time learn something of the process of insect-catching. i 
I have not noticed that the powerful fragrance of tbe blossoms 7 
attracts the housefly, although I have no doubt that it does - 
smaller insects. It seemed to be accidental when the houseflies : 
were captured. I exposed a number of buds and fully opened i 
blossoms on a sunny window-sill thronged with flies. It was not i 
many minutes before I had several captures. A mere touch of r 
fly’s leg to the glutinous hairs was sufficient for his detention. 4 : 
struggle only made matters worse, as other legs were by : 
means brought. in’ contact with the glands. These emit lo 
glairy threads which fasten to the hairs of the flies’ legs. Th a 
may be drawn. out to a great length and tenuity, still retainmg 
their strength. If two buds are pressed together and then a 
drawn apart, innumerable threads may be seen to bind et 
There is a complete network of them between the various ee 
They will confine the strongest fly ; he is at once held like Gu : 
ver among the Liliputians. Under the microscope, the ee a 
the fly are seen to be covered with the secretion, which i at : 
fectly white and transparent. In one attempt to escape, 4 pee 
fly lifted a flower bodily from the window-sill, perhaps se 
an inch, but at once sank back exhausted amidst the hairs. T 
after long efforts, escaped, but seemed incapable of using its legs 
it flew away readily. In one instance, I have found the © 
remains of a small insect embedded amidst the hairs, but t ; 
say whether its juices were in any way absorbed by the gr: 
such assimilation takes place, what is its purpose? Can tusi 
nomenon of fly-catching be in any case accidental, OY ee 
nice purpose concealed in it? I merely state the facts Be 
observed them; perhaps others can supply farther informa 2 


ON THE ANTENN IN THE LEPIDOPTERA. 


BY AUG. R: GROTE, A. M. 


In a paper read before the Portland meeting of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, I endeavored to show 
that the antenn in the moths, or night-flying Lepidoptera, were 
more highly specialized than in the butterflies, and that this spe- 
cialization of structure was correlated with habit in these insects. 
I stated that the antenna were more actively used by the moth 
than by the butterfly, and I suggested that their sensitiveness was a 
protection and an assistance to the night-flying moths in directions 
where a change to a diurnal habit rendered such sensitiveness less 
necessary to the butterfly. In two instances I was led to reject 
conclusions with regard to the antenn that had already appeared 
in print. The first of these is the hitherto accepted and arbitrary 
division of the Lepidoptera into two sections under the terms 
Rhopalocera, or club-horned, and Heterocera or diversely-horned. 
I endeavored to show, that the change in the antennal form was a 
gradual one, from the neuropteriform antenne of the Tineide, or 
lowest moths, to the butterfly-like antennæ of the Castniares, or 
highest moths ; that the antenne of the Hesperidz were quite dif- 
ferent from the butterflies ; and that the change in antennal struc- 
ture throughout the suborder was really expressed by a greater 
rigidity and equalization in length, or was one of direction and 
attitude. As the antenne become less serviceable to the insect 
they become more rigid and in position more elevated above the 
head, as in the butterfly, while in the moth they are more whip-like 
and are directed forwards or, in a state of rest, frequently thrown 

ards by the sides of the body, beneath the wings. The 
Second instance is that of Dr. Clemens,* who came to the con- 
clusion that the antenne, in the Lepidoptera, “instead of being 
organs of any special sense, as they are usually regarded, are in- 
struments of atmospheric palpation.” I have endeavored to show 
that Dr. Clemens’ experiments with the moth Platysamia cecropia, 
instead of being confirmatory of this view, point to an exactly 


* Journal Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 1859, p. 122. x 
(519) 


520 THE ANTENNZ IN THE LEPIDOPTERA. 


flying moth, deprived of its antennze, become sensible of direction 
or locality, and under its condition of mutilation it naturally re- 
fused to proceed. A very strong argument would indeed be needed 
to confirm the fact that in a single suborder of insects, so important 
and widely developed an organ as the antenna was devoted to an 
exceptional use, while the absence of any structural connection 
between the wings and the antennz renders such a construction 
impossible. It appears rather that the senses of smell and hearing 
are not differentiated in insects and that the antenne are organs 
of perception receiving impressions from either sense. The “as 
sembling ” of the Bombyces has its cause probably in the greater 
specialization of the male antenne, which are sensitive to the 
odor of the female as well as to the waves of sound. It is not 
extraordinary to find such a means for the preservation of the — 
species highly developed in a group where the maxille are feebly i 
developed, little or no food is taken, and the duration of life im i 
the reproductional stage is so brief as in the Bombyces. Having 
watched the free habit of the butterflies, I have thought that these — 
depended more on the organs of vision for a recognition of the : 
sexes, and I have detected instances of necessarily harmless CO- 
quetry between the males of Argynnis; an action not unrelated 
to that observable among dogs and higher animals. Professor 
Mayer’s experiments with the male mosquito, as narrated in the 
American NaroraLst, vol. 8, p. 236, are confirmatory of thes? 
views, as showing the sensitiveness of the antennæ to the wal? 
of sound, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that the antenn® 
of the male insect are particularly sensitive to the peculiar soul 
and odors emitted by the female of its own species. 
In the absence as yet of conclusive evidence as to cases of p% 
culiar sensitiveness to odor or sound, it may be sufficient e 
sure from what has been adduced of the general functions of i 
antennæ, and it has been the object of the writer to show that 
point of view from which systematists have hitherto reg% 
the antennæ is unfertile, and to direct attention to the real 
ences in antennal structure between the butterflies and br 
while showing that the antennz are modified by desuetude 18 
former and higher group. 


> 
7 
y 


Se a a uaa E 


ae. 


ag ree ee 


ANN i E E 


THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE LOWER ANIMALS.* 


BY PROF. P. J. VAN BENEDEN. 

Ix that great spectacle which we call nature, each animal plays a 
distinct rôle, and He who weighs and rules all with order cares as 
much for the preservation of the most repulsive insect as the 
propagation of the most brilliant bird. 

In coming into the world each of them knows its place, and 
fills it the better as it is more free to obey its instinct. Eac 
carries his prompter about with him, and man may be compared 
to their manager. 

Over this great drama of life presides a law as harmonious as 
that which rules the movements of the stars; and if at each hour, 
death carries off from this scene myriads of beings, at each hour 
also life causes new legions to replace them. It is a whirlwind, a 
chain without end. 

It is demonstrated to-day, that the animal, whatever it may 
be, whether that which occupies the top of the scale, or that 
Which touches the last confines of the kingdom, consumes water 
and carbon. Albumen suffices for all the wants of life. The 
Same hand, however, which has brought the world out of chaos, 
has varied the nature of this consummation; it has proportioned 
this universal nourishment to the needs and to the particular 


organization of the species which should draw from it the prin- 


ciple of motion, the maintenance of life. 

It is a very interesting study, that which has for its end a 
knowledge of the food of each species. This study constitutes an 
important branch of the history of animals; the bill of fare is 
Written in advance in indelible characters in each specific type, 
and these characters are scarcely less difficult to decipher for the 
naturalist than the palimpsest or the archæologist. It is under 

form of a bone or of scales, of feathers or of shells, that 

these culinary letters figure in the digestive tracts. It is by visits 

iz domiciliary but stomachal, that we are to be initiated into 
ese details of household economy. 


* Translated from La Reyue Scientifique. 
(521) 


522 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE LOWER ANIMALS. 


The bill of fare of fossil animals, though written in characters ' 
less clear and less complete, can, however, still often be read in — 
their coprolites. We should not despair even of discovering some — 
day the fishes and the crustacea which were devoured by the plesi- 
osaurs and the ichthyosaurs, and of finding that some parasitic — 
worms may have been introduced with them into their spiral 
cee 


m. 
Naturalists have not always studied with sufficient care the 
relations which exist between the animal and its food, though 
these relations would furnish the observer with information of i 
high importance. a 
Every organic body, conferva or moss, insect or mammal, 
becomes the prey of some beast; liquid or solid, sap or 
horn or feather, flesh or bone, all disappear under the teeth 
one or the other; and to the remains found in each correspond 
the instruments necessary for their assimilation. These primii T 
relations between animals and their diet maintain the industry of 
each species. 
We find on taking a nearer view, more analogy between ' 
animal world and human society, and, without seeking farther, 
can say there is no social position which has not its count 
among the animals. er 
The greater number of them live quietly on the fruits of 
labor, and practise a trade which supports them ; but aside 9 


lish themselves, some as parasites in the thickness of ther 
the others as commensals by the side of their host. 

It is some years since one of our learned and inte 
fréres of the University of Utrecht, Professor Harting 
charming little book on the industry of animals. He es ji 
our attention to the fact that most of the trades are P™ 


ee 


miners, masons, carpenters, paper-makers, weavers, 
even say lace-makers, who work at first for themselves’ ; 
wards for their offspring. Then there are some WS S 
soil, strengthen arches, clear up useless pieces of es 
miners consolidate works ;* others build huts oF P 
EET EE 


the 
* The Mygales among spiders, the Andrena, the mole-eris o 
Arenicolæ, Terebrellæ, Sabellæ, Tubifex, etc., among the worms. 


THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE LOWER ANIMALS. 523 


ing to all the rules of architecture; * still others know how to 
steal all the secrets of the makers of paper, of pasteboard,+ of 
cloth or lace, { and their products have generally nothing to fear 
in comparison with the point lace of Malines or Brussels. Who 
has not admired the ingenious and cunning construction of the 
nests of bees and of ants, the delicate and marvellous structure 
of the webs of the spider? 

The perfection of the tissues of some of these fabrics is even 
so highly appreciated that when, for his telescope, the astronomer 
wants a fine and delicate thread, it is not to Paris or London 
he sends, but to a living manufacturer, to a lowly spider! When 
the naturalist needs to compare the degree of perfection of his 
microscope, or of a micrometric measure for infinitely small beings, 
he consults, what? a millimetre cut and divided into a hundred or 
a thousand parts? No! simply a shell of a diatom,§ so small 
and indistinct that it has to be magnified several million times in 
order to be visible to the naked eye, and the best microscopes do 
not yet always reveal all the delicacy of designs which adorn 
these wonderful organisms; it is with difficulty that the instru- 
ments of the first masters suffice to observe the infinitesimal fan- 
tasies which decorate these liliputian shells. 

Finally to whom do the manufacturers of Verviers or of Lyons, 
of Gand or of Manchester go for their first designs? To an ani- 
mal, a flower ; and even to the present day we have been unwilling 
to imitate their example. These workshops are in operation every 
day under our eyes, their gates are largely open to all the world, 
Rice ee 


Mollusc: Sea, as the Pholades and Teredo, which make a ae ar in wood, 
Whether stati tionary, or peste about. There are in like ma pa mammals; 
the Chinchilla of Pern tl Cc f Good Ho 
< marmot, the e Sphermophilus and the badger, as also the small mammal known to 
every one, the 


we © tho i l boats which the waves never submerge 
2 a z fresh water the shicklobacks; and pi his ert VOT AES L. Agassiz has eee 
weed. 


a fish 


diver Says the illustrions naturalist of Camb ies s been that of a nest uit 
sip and floating on the broad ocean, with its Toigh living in the middle o 


n bees and white ants, which build houses thirty feet ma wasps, € 
ic terent species of wasps, especially Chartergus chartarius of South “America, 


s tepida, Vespa rulg $ 
ł Several spiders, Epeira diadema, A ecta aquatica and especially Tinea 
aon the cocoon of which sea as the admiration of a ie The Argyronecta con- 
ad's even a diving bell. ong the sponges, Euplectella aspergillum, Hyalonema 
$ tenia itiwe Ne re palaces of lace. 
sigma angulatum; Amphipleura pellucida, etc., etc. 


524 \ THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE LOWER ANIMALS. 


and none of them are marked with the hackneyed inscription 
No Admittance. 
Should these machines stop, or should they only rest for a tit 
we should be exposed to the chances of not being able to eo 
the nakedness of our shoulders ; the fine lady would have no mi 
cashmere, nor silk nor velvet; as for us, we should have not 
flannels, nor cloths to cover us; the shepherd even, as also the 
mountaineer, would no longer have his goatskin to protect himself 
against the inclemency of the weather. It is by the kindness 
this good creature which gives us its flesh and fleece, that we‘ 
leave the south to brave the rigor of the northern climates and 
tablish ourselves by the side of the reindeer and narwhal 
perpetual glaciers.* aa 
e have science and steam, of which we are justly proud, bat 
in order to manufacture their marvellous textures, the es i 
have only their simple instinct, and yet make them much He 
than we. How instructive is this parallel between the products 
nature and those of man! How it lowers our pretensions! 
The pretended blind forces of nature produce offspring that es 
genius of man may seek in vain to replace, and we would 3 : 
dream of contending with these living machines which we evs 
day crush under foot. 3 
The greatest industry would be invariably surpassed did 
place in one of our great universal expositions its products ert 
by side with those of the insect or spider. In order to conform 
the ideas of equality of this age, we should not in taking ** 
forget our pretended ancestors. __ 
There are all sorts of pursuits in this world, 
them are honest, we can say that there are others 
deserve this qualification. In the old as in the new 


blood and carnage. The number is even as great as eee 
of the far West who always escape, whether by some © 
audacity, or by a superiority of wickedness, social pun 


* The mouflon (Ovis musimon) and the bouquetan (Cap 


our sheep and onr goats, 8 
he Paguri, or B hardus), Cenobites 


iin t 


others, ani rally. 
t The beef-eater, the starling, the kite. § The sharks gen 


ae ae 
ay 


THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE LOWER ANIMALS. 525 


But among these independent existences there are a certain num- 
ber, who, without being parasites, cannot live without aid, and 
who claim from their relations, sometimes a simple resting place 
at the same table to divide the meal of the day ; we daily discover 
some which pass as parasites, but which, however, do not live in 
any other way at the expense of their host. 

Although a copepod crustacean is installed in the body of an 
Ascidian, and intercepts the passage to its mouth of some good 
tidbits, yet we cannot regard it as a parasite. 

But should an animal kindly render a service to his neighbor, 
whether keeping his set of teeth in order,* or in removing the 
detritus which encumbers certain organs,f we cannot say that it 
isa parasite. It is no more a parasite than he who squats by the 
side of a vigilant and clever neighbor and quietly takes his siesta,} 
or he who contents himself with the fragments which fall from the 
jaws of his acolyte.§ It is no more a parasite than he who, like 
the Remora, lazily anchors himself to a good swimmer, and fishes 
by his side without fatigue to his fins. All these animals are no 
more parasites than the traveller who installs himself in a pleas- 
ure carriage, extends bis hand in passing, or carries a crust of 
bread in his pockets. There are also mutual services rendered 
among several species, services performed by reciprocal kindness, 
and mutualism can even take its place by the side of commensalism. 
Those which deserve the name of parasites are maintained at the 
expense of their neighbor, whether they reside voluntarily in its 
i or abandon it for a while after each repast, as the leech or 

ea. 


The true parasites are very numerous in nature, and we should 
wrongly imagine that they live an unhappy and monotonous life. 
There are among them some alert and vigilant enough to sustain 
themselves for a part of their life, and only need aid at determi- 
nate periods. They are not, as has been believed, exceptional 
and strange beings without any other organs than those simply for 
P S a a 


* A plover enters the mouth of th Jile and the dél 1 
from its immobile tongue, cannot get rid of. It is a living toothpick. This fact was 
already known to Aristotle and has been since verified. 
t The opalinas of the rectum of frogs. 

$ A screech owl in Mexico places itself under the care of a small subterranean ro- 
dent, excessively alert and vigilant, the spermophile. He acts as sentinel at the door 
of this house, say the people of the country, and the owl lives in perfect quietude. 

$ An annelid of the genus Nereis establishes itself by the side of and in the same 
thell with the hermit crab. 


*. shat the animal 


526 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE LOWER ANIMALS. 


maintaining life. A large number of them are as well provided 
as others with organs for working, and only seek aid at certain 
periods in their lives. There is not, as has been thought, a spe 
cial class of parasites, but all classes of lower animals contain 
them. We may divide them into different categories ; in the first 
we may reunite all those which are free at the beginning of life, 
swimming about and taking their sport without seeking aid of any 
one, until the infirmities of age oblige them to seek refuge. Cov- 
ered with the toga pretexta they live at first like true Bohemians — 
and take their rest in some good inn.* Sometimes it is both the 
males and females which seek this kind of aid at the coming 
on of old age;7 at other times it is the females alone, while the — 
male continues his vagabond life.t It happens also that the female 
drags along her spouse, and maintains him completely during his i 
captivity ; the male remains a small boy in size as well as habits, 
and if the host who feeds her, serves him with liquor, she in pe 
turn affords her husband food.§ Few females of the Lernæans ; 
can be found which do not carry about with them their liliputian 
males, who do not quit their wives any more than their own Saai : 
ows. All the parasitic crustacea take their place in this first 
category. 7 
We also find some— those hobgoblins of ichneumons for eX 
ample— which are perfectly free in their adult age, but call for 
support in their youth. There are numbers of these insects, which 
on leaving the egg are literally put to nurse; but the day er 
they throw off their larval robes, they know no pae | 
armed from head to foot, they bravely seek adventures like a 
insects.|| In this category are found the parasitic dipterous #7 
hymenopterous insects. oe 
There are also some which are classified from their mode of 7 
all changing their hotel, not to say establishment, gener 
their age and constitution. From the time they leave he ae 
they solicit favors, and all their journey is vigorously mi er e 
in advance. We happily know to-day the steps in this J? y 
the cestode and trematode worms. These flat and s 
begin life in a sort of vagabondage, provided with a ciliat ‘ 
a mo the Lernæans, the ticks, etc. 
$ The Pilaria medinensis, or guinea worm, and several other 


The Lernæans in general. 
|| The Ichnenmons and Œstrus among insects. 


THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE LOWER ANIMALS. 527 


which serves them as a locomotive garment, but scarcely do they 
essay to use their delicate limbs, than they claim the aid and 
lodge in their first hotel; restless and unquiet, they soon abandon 
it for another home, and then reéstablishing themselves are con- 
demned to perpetual seclusion. 

That which adds to the interest which these feeble and timid 
beings inspire, is that at each change of their domicile, they 
change their costume, and also, arrived at the end of their pere- 
gtinations, they wear a virile toga, not to say a wedding dress. 
It is only under this last envelope that the sexes appear, for up to 
this time they have thought little of family cares. 

Most of the worms which have the form of a leaf or of a rib- 
bon, are subject to these peregrinations accompanied with changes 
of costume, and those which do not arrive at their final stage, 
generally die without posterity. 

Not the least interesting is the fact that these parasites do not 
inhabit indifferently such or such organs of their host; all begin 
modestly by the almost inaccessible mansard roof, and end their 
lives in the large and spacious apartments of the first floor. At 
first they care only for themselves, and are contented, under the 
name of Scolex or vesicular worms, with connective tissue, muscles, 
the heart, the ventricles of the brain, or even the ball of the eye ;* 
later they busy themselves with the cares of their families, and 
occupy the larger organs, as the alimentary and respiratory tracts, 
always in free communication with the outer world; they have a 
horror of being shut up, and their offspring reclaim an existence 
1n the broad world.+ 

It is not always easy to indicate the identity of those person- 
ages which visit one day the saloons, in embroidered dress, the 
next the most obscure closets in a beggar’s costume. 

ere is a last category in which are found those who claim aid 
during their whole existence ; penetrating at once into the body 
of their host, they do not move, but lodge there from the cradle 
to the tomb. : 


It is only a few years since we did not suppose that a parasite 
could live in any other animal than that in which we found it. 
All helminthologists, with few exceptions, regarded the intesti- 


* All the sexual Cestoids. 
t Most of those worms called ectop.rasites, as the Tristomas, etc. 


528 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE LOWER ANIMALS. 


habited. We had observed, even for a long time, the parade 
worms of a fish in the intestines of certain birds; we had even 
instituted some experiments to assure ourselves of the possibility ! 
of these passages,* but all these experiments had only given a 
negative result, and the idea that transmigration was necessary 
was so completely unknown, that Bremser, the first helminthole 
gist of his age, accused Rudolphi of heresy when he stated that 
the ligules of fishes could live in birds. 3 
At a period nearer ours, our learned friend Von Siebold, called — i 
with good reason the prince of helminthology, shared more com- 
pletely this opinion, in referring the Cysticercus of the mouse to 
the Tenia of the cat, but regarding this young worm as a stray, 
sick and dropsical being. To his eyes the worm had made a: false 
journey into the mouse ; the Tænia of the cat could only live inthe — 
cat. Was Flourens romancing when I announced to the French © 
Institute that it was necessary for these cestoid worms to migrate 
from one animal to another in order to pass through the phases 
of their development ? 
At present in the zoological institute we daily repeat with the 
same success experiments on these transmigrations, and lately 
learned friend R. Leuckart, who directs with so much talent 
Institute of Leipzig, has discovered, in company with his studert 
Metznikoff, some transformations of worms accompanied with a 
change of sex; that is to say, they have seen some Nematoid 
parasites of the lungs of frogs, either always females or hermaph- 
_rodites, produce males and females which bear no resemblance © 
their mother, and whose habitual abode is not in the lungs | the 
frog, but in humid earth.+ Here we have a female, born & W 
who cannot live without aid, and who brings forth sons and d 
ters able to take care of themselves. The mother is parasitic 
viviparous, the children are, for their whole lives, free and E 
rous. 
This leads us to that other sexual peculiarity, lately onset 
of different males and females in one and the same species, 
give birth to young which do not resemble them: the same 
or rather the same species arises from two different ogg% 3 


tag ena had seen some ligules (a piip ¢ gigas see or ate 
intestines of the merganser duck. It is a = t these 
ately iher their entrance into a strange hos 

= Praca nigro-venosa, and other tte 


THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE LOWER ANIMALS. 529 


dated by different spermatozoids.* Though these transformations 
are to-day perfectly known and believed, yet naturalists quite often 
attribute the honor of this discovery to our confréres who have not 
known that the demonstration had been entirely made and that 
the new interpretation was generally accepted. But to return to 
our subject. Aid is thus as varied as we find in our own world: 
to one is furnished the domicile, to others the table,{ and to a cer- 
tain number a livelihood in lodgings.§ It is a complete system of 
lodging and subsistence, besides the best arranged philozoic institu- 
tion. But if on the part of these paupers, we see that they render 
each other mutual aid, we should not regard them as wholly para- 
sites or commensals. We believe we should be more just in calling 
them mutualists, and mutualism reclaims a place, as we have before 
said, by the side of commensalism and of parasitism. It will be 
necessary also to find a qualification for those which, as certain 
crustacea and even birds, are spongers or sharks || (des pique-assiette 
ou des écornifleurs) rather than parasites; and for others which 
pay for the aid rendered them by malicious deeds.{ _ 

And how shall we designate those which, like the little plover 
of which we have already spoken, render a service that we may 
compare to medical assistance ? 

The plover indeed acts as a dentist to the crocodile, as a small 
Species of frog acts as an accoucheur to his wife in using his 
fingers as forceps to bring forth the eggs into the world. And the 
beef-eater, does it not perform a surgical operation each time that 
it opens with its beak, the tumor on the back of the buffalo 
Which contains a larva? It is an operator who pays for his keeping. 
Nearer at home we see the starling render in our fields the same 
Service as the beef-eater i in Africa ; and can we not say that there is 


* Insects, Crustacea and worms furnish examples. An Isopod, Apseudes anomalus 
two forms of males; the ordinary, or the more common, resembles the R 
th e Cuma ve two sorts of males; the mor n also rather 
e female, and is found all the year, while the other is rarer, and only rs at cer- 
sag . We observe the same phenomena in several other Crustacea, 
oe i. ina , Cyprin 
ese observations have been made by Sars. cognized t 
orts of males and two sorts of females in Termes lucifuga —- e esi slike- 
Wise two sexual forms, the nereidian and the ——— 


the e ti a appe isa similar instance. 
stence of winter and summer r eggs in the same A 
t The Alepas and many others. The leeches. 
: The greater number of true parasites. l Piqui-beeuf et Milan parasite. 
T The ichneumons end by killing the larva which has given them life, after having 
e pad 


TURALIST, VOL. VIII. 34 


530 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE LOWER ANIMALS. 


among these animals more than a specialty in the act of healing? 
We need not forget that the undertaker is a common personage in 
nature and that it is never without some profit to himself or his 
offspring that this sombre workman buries dead bodies.* There 
are even some animals not without some analogy with the shoe 
black or the scourer and which perform with a certain sort of ¢o- 
quetry the toilette of their neighbors.t 

And how shall we designate those birds known under the name 
of stercoraries which profit by the meanness of gulls to live in idle 
ness? The gulls surpass in their strength of wing ; the stercoraries 
end by making them disgorge and share with them the profits of i 
the fishery. Pursued too closely these timorous birds disgorge the 
contents of their crops to lighten themselves, as the smuggler who 7 
sees no other means of safety than in abandoning his load. We 
should not always ascribe these habits to the species as a W. 
since in the mosquito it is only one of the sexes which seeks a 
victim. In general all these animals live from hand to mouth, and 
if there are some which know how to ecbnomize, there are likewise 
those which do not ignore the advantages of a savings bank. = 
Like the crow and magpie there are some which care for the more 
row and save the overplus of the day. : 

We have spoken: this small world is not always easy to under 
“stand, and in these societies each one contributes his capital, some 
by industry, others by force or strategy, and he is more 4 oe 
tban a Robert Macaire who shares nothing at all and makes the 
most of everything not his own.§ 

Each kind of animal may have its parasite 
and each animal may have even different kinds and various € 
gories of them. 


yee 
i 

4 

i 

i 

j 

2 


g and commensal, 


this ôl 
*Among insects the Necrophori are known, as the name indicates, to fill 
Gr 


§The Dromias, Paguri, Cenobites, etc. 


ON THE DISTRIBUTION AND PRIMITIVE NUMBER 
5 OF SPIRACLES IN INSECTS.* 


BY A. S. PACKARD, JR. 


Pue TA 

Warme engaged in dissecting certain Sphinx and Bombycid 
larvæ, my attention was called to an interesting feature in the 
distribution of the thoracic. portion of the main tracheæ and their 

igmatal branches. In the larva of Sphinx and of Platysamia 
cecropia, and in fact so far as I am aware in all lepidopterous 
larvæ, there are nine pairs of spiracles, or stigmata, of whic 
eight are abdominal, there being a pair to each first eight seg- 
ments of the abdomen ; while there is but one pair of thoracic 
spiracles, which are invariably, so far as I am aware, situated on 
the prothoracic segment. On laying open the body of a Sphinx 
larva a large number of branches are seen to arise from the pro- 
thoracic and basal, or first pair of abdominal spiracles. Now 
between these two points it will be remembered that there are no 
Spiracles or any external signs of them. And yet the main tra- 
chea between these two spiracles deviates from its course and 
bends down to send off a small trachea to the place where, did a 
Spiracle exist, we should look for it, i.e., to a point in the suture 
between the mesothoracic and metathoracic segments, where in 
hy menopterous larva a spiracle does exist. From the upper side 
of the main trachea two larger branches are sent towards the 
‘terior of the body. These apparently correspond with the num- 
erous branches sent off from the spiracles. 

In Platysamia cecropia the same disposition of the main tra- 
chea May be seen, as it bends out in the same way towards the 
Usual site of” the spiracle in other groups of insects, and throws 
off three branches, one outward towards the tegument, small, and 
apparently rudimentary, while the two others, directed inwards, 
are larger than in Sphinx. 

: This has led me to ascertain how the spiracles are distributed 
a other groups of insects, and what is their usual number. 
While in the lepidopterous larvæ there is but one pair of stig- 
mata, which are situated on the prothoracic, or first thoracic, seg- 


*Read before the National Academy of Sciences, New York, en 


552 DISTRIBUTION OF SPIRACLES IN INSECTS. 


ment, in the larvæ of the higher Hymenoptera, i.e., the bees and 
wasps (I have examined Bombus, Xylocopa, Halictus, Andrena, 
Vespa and Polistes), there are no spiracles on the prothorax, but 
a pair on each of the two following thoracic segments. Tn all 
these the thoracic spiracles are as well developed as those on the 
abdomen, and in Bombus larvæ the tracheæ proceeding from the 
spiracles are as well developed, being large and elongate barrel- 
shaped just after leaving the stigmata, and beyond subdividing 
into several branches. In two genera of Tenthredinidæ, and prob- 
ably in the family generally, the spiracles are arranged as in ns 
lepidopterous larvæ, there being but one pair, the prothoracie. — 
n the Uroceride, however, Tremex in its larval state has ie 
pairs, one prothoracic and one metathoracic, the anterior pair twice 
as large as the posterior pair. So it would seem that while no 
known hymenopterous larva has more than two pairs of spi pri 
on the thorax, yet three pairs may be found on different rings A l 
different groups, though not actually existing in one individual. 
The ideal number of pairs is three, or for the entire body cleven. 
In the Diptera the Cecidomyiæ have nine pairs of stigmata, 0 : 
which one is thoracic (on the prothorax), while the eight other 


pairs are abdominal. In the Muscidæ, there are two pairs only, : 
one prothoracic, the other anal, or situated on the ninth no ; 
of the abdomen. So that in this group we have ten cai meee 


which bear spiracles, though no single species is known to w 
more than nine pairs of spiracles. 7 
In the Coleoptera there are usually nine pairs of ie 
thoracic, and eight abdominal. The thoracic spiracles mee 
on the pro- or meso-thoracic segment.* In the adult Melolo a 
and other beetles Strauss shows that a spiracle exists pene ‘ : 
meso- and meta-thorax, which is not present in the larva- 
be so, then the ideal number of pairs in Coleoptera ig ton a 
In the Hemiptera and Orthopterat there are two wo - 
gments 5 oie 


thoracic spiracles present on i the two antore: ae 
the thors? 


*It is often difficult to say on which segment of the coleopterous mei or 
spiracles are placed, they are so near the suture separating preys" of Car 
segm . pium, To 
Cetonia (by some they are stated to be on the meso-thoracic ring » ee ring ( 
and Xanthochroe the spiracles are said to be place p nts, 
In Magdalinus they are situated o 


and in others on the anterior edge of the meso-thoracic 
tGryllidæ and Acrydii (Dufour). 


DISTRIBUTION OF SPIRACLES IN INSECTS. 533 


in the Neuroptera* there are the same number, but none on the 
prothorax. ; 

In the larva of Corydalus cornutus there is a pair of spiracles 
on the prothorax, but they are no larger than those on the basal 
segment of the abdomen. It is difficult to say whether they are 
situated on the prothoracic or mesothoracic segment, but I am 
inclined to regard- them as placed on the extreme hind edge of 
the prothoracic ring. 

A curious fact may be here mentioned, as I have not seen it 
noticed before, regarding the distribution of the tracheæ in the 
larva of Corydalus. The main traches suddenly enlarge from the 
second abdominal spiracle to the base of the head, when it sub- 
divides and distributes branches to the head. From the spiracle 
on the basal abdominal segment a trachea, as large as the an- 
terior swollen portion of the main trachea, takes its origin and 
passes directly under the main trachea. Now both trachee send 
a branch opposite to where the mesothoracic stigma should be, if 
Present, i.e., on the hind edge of the ring. Both branches of the 
trachese, the main one and its fellow, anastomose perfectly over 
the branch sent off to the prothoracic spiracle. 

This doubling of the tracheæ, which “are so very large, forms 
evidently an hydrostatic, as well as respiratory, organ and serves 
to lighten the anterior and heavier portion of the body, as in the 
dilated air sacs of the terrestrial insects. This fact seems to 
Sustain the view of Gegenbaur,{ that the trachese were at first 
closed, forming air-bladders, and afterwards performed the func- 
tion of respiration. 

It would appear from these facts that while no more than ten 
Pairs of spiracles are to be found on the bodies of any one spe- 
“es of the groups of insects above mentioned, yet that eleven 
Segments of the body, in different species taken collectively, bear 
them. Now if we turn to the Thysanurous genus Campodea, we 
Shall find on the authority of Meinert that it bears spiracles on 
Sach thoracic segment. From this fact we are inclined to regard 
eleven as the normal primitive number of pairs of spiracles. 
Probably the larvæ of the different groups of winged insects had 
originally a pair on each thoracic segment. Certainly at least on 
Tolutional grounds from the indications in existing caterpillars 


re are two pairs of spiracles i horacic and meta-thoracic rings 
Te: * 2 piracles in the mes s 
nove, tively in the Libellulidæ and Ephemerid (none abdominal, as the larvæ have 
), and in the My d Perlidz 


tc, Gegenbaur, Griindziige der Vergleichenden Anatomie, 2te Auflage, 1870. p. 437 


534 GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 


we are perhaps warranted in concluding that the ancestral typeof 
lepidopterous larvæ was provided with two pairs of thoracic spira- 
cles. ie 


GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN NORTH 
AMERICAN BIRDS.* 


BY J. A. ALLEN. 


ae 


_ Propasty the birds of no equal area of the earth’s surface a 
better known than those of North America north of Mexico, or of 4 
the whole continent southward even to the Isthmus of Panama. : 
No museums in the world, probably, possess so large suites of : 
specimens of single species as there are of North American birds 

in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution and in the Museum 
of Comparative Zoology, nor from so many localities. many 
f specimens 
collected at frequent intervals throughout their known range. 
Those contained in the Smithsonian Institution have : 
carefully elaborated by Prof. Baird and others, whose reports 
them have justly acquired a world-wide reputation for their Wer 
oughness and accuracy. Those in the Museum of Compa 


of material? What are the allowable inferences, and whats 
principles have been apparently established? To answer thes 
tions as briefly as may be is the object of the present re: 
premising, however, that the formerly current opinions Te 
the rank of a certain class of forms heretofore generally T° 
as specific have been radically modified. Intergradation 1 
frequently traced between widely different forms, à 8™ | 
cence in scores of instances having been positively €s 
and rendered extremely probable in a large number of oth 
In North America geographical variation exhi 
phases : — (1) a differentiation with differences 
elevation, and (2) differentiation with differences Ha 
which, for convenience, may be termed, respectively _ 


* From the Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. XV, P» 212. 


GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 535 


and longitudinal variation.* In respect to both, differentiation 
occurs in different degrees in different groups, in accordance with 
their general tendency to variation, or, as it were, in proportion 
to their normal degree of plasticity. In regard to variation with 
latitude the modifications are apparently more general than in 
what I have termed longitudinal variation. In latitudinal varia- 
tion the differentiation affects not merely color, but size and the 
details of structural parts, whereas color appears to be the main 
element affected by longitudinal variation. The fact of variation 
in size has been conceded as a general law by the majority of at 
least American ornithologists and mammalogists since it was so 
fully established by Prof. S. F. Baird in 1857 and 1858, in his 
admirable reports on the mammals and birds of North America, 
published in the series of Government Reports on the explora- 
tions and surveys of the various Pacific Railroad routes. Prof. 
Baird then and subsequently + called attention to the fact of the 
greater length of the tail in several species of birds at certain 
localities, and cites instances of the larger size of the bill at 
southern points, and the paler color of the plumage of the birds 
of the Plains and the arid peninsula of Lower California. All 
his subsequent works have furnished numerous citations of similar 
variation with locality, but instead of insisting upon any common 
tie connecting these phenomena as the result of general laws, they 
were viewed as evidences of specific differentiation. The differ- 
ences are, indeed, so great between many of the forms now known 
to intergrade that it is not surprising that they were regarded as 
different species when known from only a few examples, appar- 
ently unconnected by intermediate forms. Subsequently, however, 
it been found that they are not trenchantly separated, inter- 
Mediate forms so linking them together that they can be only 
vaguely diagnosed. These connecting links, inhabiting — at 
least in the breeding season — localities intermediate in geograph- 
ical position and in climatic conditions to those frequented by the 
_ More extreme forms, suggest an intimate genetic relationship and 
4 differentiation mainly or wholly through climatic influence, or 
the diverse conditions of environment. 

Latitudinal variation presents the following phenomena, which 
‘re of such general occurrence that even the exceptions, if such 
“ere really be, are exceedingly few. 

* See Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. ii, pp- 220-247, et seg., April, 1871. 
t Amer. Journ. Sci. and Arts, vol. xli, 1866. 


536 GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 


1. As regards Size. There is a general reduction in the size of 
the individual from the north southward, amounting not unfre- 
quently to as high as ten to fifteen per cent. of the maximum siz 
of the species. The reduction is much greater in some species, 
and in some groups of species, than in others, but is almost inva 
riably considerable and easily recognizable. 

2. In respect to the Bill. The variation of the bill is somewhat 
inverse to that of the general size, as a rule the southern forms 
having generally relatively, and often absolutely, larger bills | 
than northern ones, the increased size taking different proportions 
in different species and different styles of bill. Those of a stout, 
thick, conical form generally increase in general size, but espe 
cially in thickness. Those of a slender, attenuate form ey 
slenderer and relatively longer at the southward, with a decidedly 
greater tendency to curvature. 

3. In respect to the Claws. A similar increase in size is app 
ent in thé claws, especially in that of the hallux, at southem — 
localities, perhaps less marked and less general than the increase : 
of the bill, with which it evidently correlates. 

4. In respect to the Tail. A marked elongation of the tail . E 
the southward has been noticed in many cases, both in Cape St : 
Lucas birds (Baird) and in those of Florida. en 

5. In respect to Color. The differences in color are especially n 
obvious, and may be reduced to two phases of modih : 
(a) a general increase in intensity at the southward, and (b) oe 
increase in the extent of dusky or black markings at the i e b 
of the intervening lighter or white ones; or, conversely, oul 2 
duction in size of white spots and bars. Under the & eee _ 
increase in intensity the iridescence of lustrous species = a000 

nd olivac®™" 
greater, and fuscous, plumbeous, rufous, yellow ane ' 
tints are heightened in species with the color continuous 10 


at the expense of the white or lighter ones, sometimes 10 ©. 
extent as greatly to change the general aspect of ae ae 
is the case in the Ortyx virginianus of the Atlantic States, ie 
other well known species. Also under the tendency on 3 light 
crease of dark colors, longitudinal streaks and blotches °F — 

ground increase in extent and intensity of color. 


GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 537 


In respect to longitudinal variation, the differences appear to be 
mainly those of color, and to hold a direct relationship to the hu- 
midity of the climate. On the arid plains of the middle and 
western portions of the continent the annual rainfall is less than 
half that of the eastern half of the continent, while a rainy belt 
occurs on the Pacific coast, stretching northward from near the 
mouth of the Columbia River to Alaska, over which the annual 
rainfall is double that of any portion of the eastern half of the 
continent. Taking the species that present a nearly continental 
range, we find that almost invariably they pass gradually into the 
pallid forms of the interior at the eastern edge of the arid plains, 
the greatest pallor being developed in the driest regions, as the 
peninsula of Lower California and the almost rainless belt along 
the Colorado River, and northward along the eastern base of the 
Sierra Nevada Mountains; that on the Pacific slope they again 
reassume nearly the tints of the eastern form, but more to the 
northward, over the above-mentioned rainy region, they acquire 
a depth of color far in excess of what the species presents in the 
Atlantic region. This coincidence of bright and pale tints, with 
the relative humidity of the locality is certainly suggestive, if not 
demonstrative, of the relation of cause and effect between these 
two phenomena, since the same rule is traceable, over large por- 
tions, at least, of the Old World; the Scandinavian forms, for 
instance, being darker colored than the conspecific races of Cen- 
tral Europe, and these again darker than those of Northern 
Africa and the adjacent regions. Humidity alone, or in con- 
junction with greater intensity of light, seems equally well to 
account for the increase of color to the southward. Yet, from the 
well known bleaching effect of sunlight, intensified by reflection, 
upon the colors of animals living upon sandy islands, and sea- 
beaches, and desert interior regions, it seems doubtful whether the 
larger share of modification in intensity of color in birds may not 

due to humidity alone, or to humidity and a high temperature 
together, rather than to intensity of light.* 

In regard to the enlargement of peripheral parts at the south- 
ward, it seems not unreasonable to suppose that the increase of 
temperature in stimulating the circulation in these exposed mem- 
bers may have something to do with it, especially in view of the 


<i on this point further remarks by the same writer in Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 
xvi, June, 1874 


- 


538 GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS, 


evidence afforded by mammals, which in general present climatic 
modifications parallel with those of birds. ‘salir 
Whatever may be the cause of the above modifications of struck 
ure and color at different localities, we certainly find the following 
coincidences: I. In accordance with the increase in the i 
of color in individuals of the same species from the north south- 
ward, in the northern hemisphere, the brighter colored species in 
genera represented in both the temperate and tropical regions 
occur, as a general rule, at the southward; the same fact holding 
good also for sub-families. In cosmopolitan genera, families, ettu 


at the southward, all the species that have this member enormi 
developed are tropical or semi-tropical, not only such families 
have the beak at its maximum of development, as the toucans anl 
hornbills, but in all groups in which it is unusually large, the es 
treme development is reached in the intertropical regions. £ 
In respect to the tail, with very few exceptions, all long- é 
forms attain the highest development of this member within 
near the equatorial regions. í 
The facts indicated above, in respect to the inosculation 
formerly regarded as specifically differentiated, will ev 
quire modifications of the hitherto accepted nomenclature. 
dently many of these forms are so strongly marked that 
should be in some manner recognized in nomenclatures 
admittedly of less than specific rank, Most naturalists now P 
tically recognize as species such groups of individuals as ss 
known to graduate by nearly imperceptible stages into Hes 


ar ine individuals 
similar group; and as varieties, such groups of ind 


which differ e 


in fact, already more or less generally practised. ‘eal ™ 
Finally, what is the bearing of these facts of geograp’™™ 


GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 539 


riation upon the question of origin of genera and species? Hav- 
ing approached the subject from a geographical standpoint, my 
own impression of the importance of the conditions of environ- 
ment in modifying the characteristics of animals may have unduly 
impressed me; yet that they exercise a greater influence than is 
currently recognized I think must be admitted. How, for instance, 
can natural or sexual selection satisfactorily account for the occur- 
rence of pallid forms in arid, semi-desert regions, and of brighter 
colored forms in contiguous humid districts, or the generally in- 
creased intensity of color southward, and its maximum develop- 
ment only toward and within the tropical regions? In many 
cases, it is true, the change in color may be protective, as it doubt- 
less is in the assimilation of the pale tints of birds and other ani- 
mals inhabiting arid plains to the generally gray color of the 
vegetation and the earth itself in such localities; yet, as the re- 
semblance of the birds of these arid districts when young or in 
fresh plumage to those of the adjoining regions at the same season 
is much greater, as a general rule, than at the end of the breeding 
Season, we have thus palpable evidence of the direct modification 
of color by environing conditions. Again, it is hard to see how 
the intenser and darker shades of the iridescence of the Quiscali 
in the South Atlantic and Gulf States, or their slenderer and more 
decurved bill, or the greater breadth of the transverse black bars 
on the breast of the southern form of Ortya Virginianus can be in 
the one case any more “protective,” or in the other give greater 
facility in obtaining food, than the different colors and the differ- 
ently proportioned beaks of the northern forms of these species ; 
or of what advantage the large claws and long tails can be at 
Southern localities rather than at northern. The variation in color 
is not apparently.any better explained by sexual selection than are 
the other modifications by natural selection, for it is hardly sup- 
posable that sexual selection should act in so uniformly an acceler- 
ated degree toward the southward, or so generally from arid 
regions toward moister ones. On the contrary, it is just this grad- 
ual and general modification over wide areas that apparently 
Points to climatic influence as the differentiating cause. There is, 
farther, frequently a closer assimilation of the sexes at the south- 
y »48 among the Jcteridw, through the greater increased bril- 
lianey of the female as compared with the male, which is rather 


540 GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 


the reverse than otherwise of what is commonly supposed to he 
the result of sexual selection. 

Freely admitting, however, that both natural selection and sex- 
ual selection are causes of modification in the gradual differentia- 
tion of animals, I am led to regard them as secondary rather than 
primary elements, and that climate and other environing condi- 
tions take a larger share in the work than the majority of evolu- 
tionists seem willing to admit. Evidently no single law will 
explain all the phases of modification by descent, and in addition 
to those above alluded to, doubtless what Hyatt and Cope, among 
American zoologists, have termed the laws of acceleration and re- 
tardation are among the other causes of the modification. In 
birds, even, phenomena are apparent that cannot be strictly ad- 
mitted into the category of geographical or climatic variations, 
but seem singularly to combine some evident features of this a 
acter with a retention of a few embryonic characteristics, especially 
in respect to coloration, of allied intergrading forms, as OOE e 
some of the birds of the middle portion of the North American 
continent as compared with those of the eastern portion. Agam 
in respect to insular regions, while the above mentioned general 
laws of climatic variation are there evident, certain other a 
tional modifications obtain, that seem specially to characterize ! 
those regions, ; 

A word, in conclusion, respecting hybridity : — When mene 
tively few instances were known, in which specimens on 
various degrees the characters of two quite distinct p e és 
synthetic character was generally explained by the theory e E 
bridity ; but the irrefragability of the evidence now at h a 
proof of the intergradation of such forms over large son a 
transition being so gradual as to occupy hundreds of miles 10 e 
passage, —and also coincident with a similarly gradual per K 
the conditions of environment, together with the dom i "o 
evidence of the power of climatic influence, seems to farnish a 
more satisfactory explanation of these perplexing po that 
` But an advocate of the theory of hybridity might still pee’ the 

this gradual transition over a wide area is nd es contat 
theory, since the gradual fading out of the impression " atit 
in either direction from the line of junction of the pi patol 


habitats of two forms is just the result that would be an 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. .541 


from such a sexual intermingling of the forms in question. But 
the real objection to the theory—granting the possibility of hy- 
bridization on such a gigantic scale, which seems really improb- 
able—is, that widely different forms occur also at different points 
in latitude, between which each successive stage of gradual differ- 
entiation can be readily traced, where hybridity can scarcely be 
supposed to account for the gradual change. Furthermore, grad- 
ual differentiation is now known in so many cases that it amounts 
to the demonstration of climatic variation as a general law, by 
means of which a species may be safely predicted to take on a 
given character under certain specific climatic conditions. If the 
theory of hybridity be urged to account for the intergradation of 
forms occurring at localities differently situated in respect to lati- 
tude, as has sometimes been done, it evidently falls under the 
Weight it has to support; and yet there seems to be little better 
evidence in its behalf in cases where the intergrading forms 
happen to be differently situated in respect to longitude. 

. To describe in detail, or even to give illustrations, of geograph- 
ical modification would require more space than would be proper 
to use in this connection, especially since a preliminary exposition 
of the facts upon which the preceding generalizations have been 
based, has already been presented in two papers in the Bulletin 
of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Vol. ii, No. 3, April, 
1871, and Vol. iii, No. 6, June, 1872). 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 

RECENT PUBLICATIONS oN OrniTHOLOGY.— Like the pages of the 
Narorauisr with which our readers are of course sufficiently fa- 
miliar, recent issues of nearly all our scientific institutions show 
notable activity in ornithology, and a number of papers have 
accumulated on our table. In the Philadelphia Academy’s Pro- 
ceedings, Mr. Thos. G. Gentry has described peculiarities in the 
Nidifications of Sayornis fuscus (1873, p. 292) and Vireo solitarius 
(op. cit., 354); Mr. B. R. Hoopes has published a new variety, 
Krideri, of Buteo borealis (op. cit., 238, pl. 5) from Iowa, a pale 
race of the dry interior, apparently as distinct as some others now 
Currently recognized. In the Boston Society's Proceedings (xvi, 


542 - REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


1873, 106), Dr. Brewer has continued the development of lt 
Bendire’s Arizona odlogical collections, which was begun in the 
Naruratist (June, 1873, 321) describing several varieties or nov- 
elties. The identifications appear to be correct, excepting that of 
Carpodacus Cassinii which should, we believe, stand as C. frontalis, : 
and that of “ Myiadestes Townsendii,” an evident slip of the pen 
for Pheenopepla nitens. ioe 
r. Brewer has also a brief notice of the North American Hy 
locichlæ (Pr. B. S. N. H. xvi, pt. ii), in which he takes the ground 
that there are eight species of this subgenus, a view at variance 
with that now commonly accepted by ornithologists, who reduce 
the number to four or five. For ourselves, we concur more nearly 
with the mode in which the several forms are handled in the n 
work of Messrs. Baird, Brewer and Ridgway. pe 
The important business of cataloguing the Boston Society’s col- 
lection of birds, ably begun by Mr. A. Hyatt, has been carried on 
by Mr. R. Ridgway, who has gone carefully over the series of 
Raptores, identifying the specimens and naming them upon his 
protracted and favorably known studies of this group. His paper 
(Pr. Bost. Soc. xvi, 1873, 43), though simply a catalogue, heey 
at once an authority, and places the collection upon a more satisfac- 
tory basis than it has hitherto rested upon. We wish that arrange 
ments could be made for him to go over the Philadelphia Acad- 
emy’s Raptores in like manner; it is a very desirable piece Z 
work, which must be done some day, and we know of no one more 
competent to do it. The article is supplemented with mow 
graphs of the genera Micrastur, Geranospiza, Rupornis and ca 
cidium, worked out with the same patient care and to the one 
extent of analytical detail which have marked his previous pee 


Without here entering upon a criticism of certain determi ie 
as some of those in the genus Micrastur, which will see” 
modelling, we may witness the extent and importance of hist 
vestigations in these groups. ral addr 
The same author has lately cleared his desk of sever 


(Essex Inst. Bull. v, 197) describes a number of new ae 
North American Birds, from his own and Prof. Baird’ 
scripts. The descriptions are virtually of one parcel P 
lately published in the Nartvura.isr, in advance of the grt" — 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 543 


of Messrs. Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, partly in courteous accom- 
modation of ourselves, in order that the names might become 
- available for our “ Check List,” then in press. Some twenty-five 
hew names are proposed all together, mostly varietal. 

Mr. Ridgway’s fourth and fifth papers are local lists of the Birds 
of, respectively, Colorado and the Salt Lake Valley. The first of 
these is a digest of the previous literature upon the subject, to- 
gether with the large amount of material gathered by, more par- 
ticularly, Mr. C. E. Aiken ; it comprehends the birds of the whole 
territory. The last named may be regarded as in some measures 
complementary to Mr. J. A. Allen’s recent ‘ Reconnoissance’ (Bull. 
Mus. Comp. Zool., iii, 1872), Mr Ridgway’s investigations having 
been conducted from May until August, while Mr. Allen’s were 
autumnal. The two together go very far towards completing our 
knowledge of the presence and movements of the species within 
the region mentioned. 

In evidence of the great activity of research at present in the 
southwest, may be instanced an additional local list by Mr. H. W. 

enshaw, giving a résumé of the ornithological results of his sea- 
Son’s connection with the Wheeler Explorations west of the 100th 
Meridian. The ground covered is partly what we went over in 

64-65, which has been latterly reworked by Lt. Bendire, U.S.A. 
The list is confined to Mr. Henshaw’s own observations, and ma 
be regarded as perfectly reliable, not only in the identifications of 
the Species, now contained in his beautiful collection, but in the 
observations upon their movements and relative frequency. 

Returning to Mr. Ridgway’s contributions to ornithology, we 
have next to note an important paper (Ann. Lye. N. Y. x, 1874, 
364) upon the birds of Illinois, with one exception the first article 
bearing upon the whole subject. Mr. R, H. Holder’s paper 
(Trans. Ill. Agric. Soc. iv, 1859-60, 605; 247 species, minus 
two not valid) was a simple enumeration, and, though excellent 
as far as it went, lacked the essential qualifications of discrim- 
Mating the several categories of residents, migrants and strag- 

lers. Kennicott’s contributions (op. cit., i, 580; 187 species) 
were confined to Cook county, and to a supplement of 22 species 
to Henry Pratten’s list of the Birds of Wayne and Edwards 
Counties (184 sp. + 22—206 ; op. cit., 596) with the addition of 
anhinga and Tantalus loculater (Pe. Bost. Soc. v, 1856, 391). 


With the exception of a paper which we have not seen, by F. 


546 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


Messrs. Jordan and Van Vlieck publish at Appleton, Wise., in 
small 4to, a Popular Key to the Birds, Reptiles and Fishes of the 
Northern States. When the emended edition of this praiseworthy 
endeavor to unlock this portion of our fauna to students isis- 
sued — we understand a revision is contemplated — we trust we 
may be authorized by the merits of the publication to speak of it 
more highly than we can at present. 

Though somewhat foreign to our present purpose, reference iD 
this connection to Prof. Reinhardt’s continued studies on the 
osteology of Water-birds (Aft. Vid. Medd. Nat. For. Kjob., 187, 
123) may not be wholly out of place, as we are convinced of the 
particularly important bearing such investigations have upon the 
classification of the future. In the late paper referred to, the 
wing-structure of Procellariide is treated with reference to the 
presence of the one or two supplementary ossicles of ho . 
joint, developed in connection with the “ apophyse crochue” of 
the humerus, and the origin of the extensor metacarpilongus 
extensor plice alaris (tensor patigii of some authors). He | 
the bones in six genera and not in eight; but as the six ae r 
richer in species, it is present in about two-thirds the species 
the family. They are peculiar to the family, though other Lon 
pennes, as well as Alcidæ and Limicole have the humeral hook. — 
He points out their function, and proposes to divide the group 
primarily upon them. — Exuiorr Coues. | 

History or Nort American Brros.*— The announcement di 
a work on the ornithology of North America, by the above 
gentlemen, is in itself a guarantee of its interest A da 
value ; and the three volumes now published fully satisfy such ©” a 
pectations. : 

A work of this character, always welcome, is particularly ws 
tune at this time, as the need of a comprehensive s — ee 
North American Birds” has long been felt. For nearly 4%% m 
a century from the publication of Audubon’s “ Birds of i pe 
in 1844, until the present year, no such book has apposite! 
long ago as 1858, the numerous Government expeditions ©" 

*A History of North American Birds, by S. F. Baird, T. M. Brewer and B- rider 
Land Birds. 3 vols., large 8 ton, Little and Brown. q also cota 
t We exclude numerous monographs and more or less local Hem regard 0 6 


orks, which, while valuable in themselves, contain little or nothing 


d scien BY a 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 547 


cumulated so great a mass of material as to necessitate its publi- 
cation, forming the well-known ninth volume of Pacific Railroad 
Reports. This was almost entirely technical, and limited to clas- 
sification and description. Since this date many new species have 
been discovered and much additional information acquired, which 
find expression here, together with a résumé of everything of 
value previously published. The typography is all that could be 
desired, and misprints are noticeably few in number. e illus- 
trations are excellent, and comprise a full length figure and out- 
lines of the bill, wing, and foot of at least one species of each 
genus; and sixty-four plates representing the head, for the most 
part of life size, of each species. Volume I begins with an intro- 
duction giving the general anatomical characteristics of Aves, and 
their classification. Under the first family, or Turdidæ, are in- 
cluded sixteen species and seven varieties. Two only (T. Pallasi, 
with var. nanus and var. Auduboni, and T. Swainsoni with. var. 
ustulatus) are found from ocean to ocean, being modified in certain 
regions as above. Turdus confinis is united to migratorius as a 
Variety ; and T. iliacus of Europe is admitted into our fauna, hav- 
ing been twice obtained in Greenland. 

Harporhynchus Lecontei and longirostris are given as varieties 
respectively of H. redivivus and rufus. Phyllopneuste Kennicotti 
Baird is a synonyme of P. borealis Blasius, the latter name having 
Priority ; it is a Northeastern Asian species, accidental in Alaska 
and perhaps in Europe (Heligoland). Saxicola enanthe is now 
recognized as by no means rare in the northern parts of our con- 
tinent, where it seems to become more abundant yearly. Regulus 
Cuvieri Aud. is included ; a second specimen, together with the 
nests and eggs of the two common species, are still desiderata. 
The Paring comprise twelve species and three varieties, of which 
ee latter two (P. septentrionalis and occidentalis) are races of 
atricapillus. Sitta includes three species only, S. aculeata be- 
‘ng given as a variety of Carolinensis, and pygmea (ILI, 502) 
as “probably a geographical form of S. pusilla.” Our Creepers 
are regarded as Certhia familiaris var. Americana and var. Mez- 
ag Here, as in many other parts of the present work, the 


Judiciously, In regard to the present species we can say from 
careful personal observations, that the habits and notes (including 


548 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


the “very distinct and varied song”) are almost precisely iden- 
tical both in this country and in Europe. 

Thryothorus Berlandieri is united to Ludovicianus as a variety; 
and Troglodytes Parkmanni with aedon. T., Americanus Aud. is 
stated to be aedon “in dark, accidentally soiled plumage.” T. 
hyemalis and Alascensis-are given as geographical races of the 
European T. parvulus. Motacilla alba of Europe, like Turdus 
iliacus, has been twice obtained in Greenland, and more frequently 
in Iceland, and is therefore described. A third common European 
species, Anthus pratensis, has also been procured in Greenland, 
and more recently in Alaska. i 

Pages 177-325 are devoted to the Sylvicolidæ, and form a very 
interesting section. Fifty-two species and three varieties us 
enumerated, the genus Dendroica claiming twenty-three species. 
Geothlypis Macgillivrayi receives a distinct article on pp- 303-305; 
n p. 297, and also in the appendix (III, 507), it is stated to : 
be a geographical race of G. Philadelphia. : i 

Icteria longicauda is given as a western form of virens. Thirteen 
species of Vireo, with three varieties V. gilvus var. Swainsoni; V. 
solitarius var. Cassini and plumbeus) are described. On pp- 8 2 
and 364, V. olivaceus is stated to have occurred in England; w d 
it is somewhat questionable whether the specimen obtained Was 
not V. altiloquus.* a 

The number of North American shrikes has been reduced t0 a 
two, Collurio borealis and O. Ludovicianus, with vat. robustus a 
(= elegans, Baird nec Swainson) and var. excubitoroides. w > 
426-428 is given a synopsis of the Certhiolæ, several of W i a 
(besides C. Bahamensis) may very possibly occur as stragglers 
the southern extremity of Florida. 


and our pine 


_ Pyranga Cooperi Ridgway, is united to P. estiva, Me. Bi 
grosbeak to Pinicola enucleator of Europe. Pyrrhula ait of the 
ot a variety O 


is “a well marked and distinct species,” and n : 
European P. coccinea ; it is a Siberian species accidental i ae 
and has been once obtained in Belgium. Loaia Americana 
Mexicana are united to curvirostra as varieties, a00 V 
leucoptera to bifasciata; but in the appendix (HI, 509) w 
are separated as “entirely distinct” species. The det sical 
of our species of Agiothus is as follows :— I. A 


$ : rict, 
Greenland, with var. exilipes of continental Arctic Ame A 
p- gr. Pe 


* Bee a paper by Bree, in the London “ Field,” May 14, 1870 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 549 


A. linarius of continental N. A., with var. Holbélli of Greenland 
in summer and continental N. A. in winter; III. A. flavirostris 
var. Brewsteri. Leucosticte griseinucha is united to tephrocotis as 
a variety, as are three others, campestris Baird, littoralis Baird, 
and (III, 509) australis Allen. The validity of Passerculus 
princeps Maynard, as distinguished from Centronyx Bairdi, is con- 
firmed. Passerculus alaudinus, Sandwichensis, and anthinus are 
considered to be geographical forms of P. savanna; and P. guttatus 
is united to rostratus. In the Appendix (III, 513), speaking of 
the fact that Coturniculus Lecontei is intermediate between CO. 
Henslowi and Ammodromus caudacutus, Prof. Baird remarks that 
“this renders it necessary to unite Ammodromus and Coturniculus 
into one genus, recognizing them as subgenera, definable chiefly 
by the different style of coloration of the superior surface in the 
two groups,” the name Ammodromus having priority. 

In the same appendix, p. 516, the capture in California of a 
Specimen intermediate between Passerella iliaca and Townsendi is 
said to render it “ extremely probable that all the — forms of 
this genus are but geographical races of one species.” 

To Melospiza melodia are allotted six varieties. Alauda arvensis 
of Europe claims admission, it having been captured in Greenland 
and Bermuda; and it has also been introduced in the vicinity of 
a York City, apparently with success. Eremophila cornuta 

“appears to be absolutely identical ” with E. alpestris of Europe, 
Which latter name has priority. Sturnella neglecta is united to 

. magna as a western race. 

Sturnus vulgaris, having been once obtained in Greenland, is 
included. The raven of Ne orth America is considered to be a race 
of the European C. corax. Another judicious change is the re- 
ferring of Pica Hudsonica and Nuttalli to P. caudata as varieties ; 
Nuttaiti being regarded as a local aberrant form of Hudsonica, 
differing chiefly i in its yellow bill. The difficult family of Tyran- 
nidæ receives a careful and interesting review. Contopus Richard- 
soni is given as vir ens, var.; and Empidonax Trailli as pusillus, 
Var. Chordeiles Henryi is considered to be a western form of C. 

ipetue, 


Of humming birds ten species are described, including the 
doubtful Mamaia: Linnæi. Lampornis mango is mentioned in 
a foot note o only. 


550 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


The number of valid species of woodpeckers has been consid- 
erably reduced, only twenty-three being enumerated, including 
Colaptes hybridus, and omitting Campephilus imperialis as extra- 
limital. Picus Canadensis, Harrisi and Auduboni are united tovi- 
losus as varieties; Gairdneri with pubescens; Picoides Americanus — 
with tridactylus of Europe; Sphyrapicus nuchalis and ruber with © 
varius. On p. 588, vol II, speaking of Conurus Carolinensis and 
the singular confusion, still existing in regard to its breeding habits, 
etc., Prof. Baird remarks that ‘‘in view of their very limited area 
and rapid diminution in numbers, there is little doubt but that 
their total extinction is only a matter of years, perhaps to be con- 
summated within the lifetime of persons now living.” ae 

The third volume begins with the Raptores, the systematic pe : 
tion of which is by Mr. Ridgway. Here, again, many of tie: 
allied boreal forms of North America and Europe are united a$ | 
geographical races of the same species, and in our opinion with 
great justice.* Fifteen species of owls are enumerated. Tt seems 
to be definitely settled that Myctale albifrons Cassin is the pa 
of N. Acadica. Three principal varieties of Scops asio ee 
Floridana, Maccalli and Kennicøtti. The dimorphic condition® — 
this species and Glaucidium ferrugineum (as well as other exu% 
limital species) is well compared to the melanistic state of certam 
hawks, in the one case reddish, in the other a more or Jer 
sooty brown being the color. Spheotyto hypogæa of eer : 
Central America is given as a race of S. cunicularia of 2 
America. 

The Falconidæ comprise thirty-one species. 
rule applies to the allied races of hawks as well as owl 
as compared with those of North America, namely, t% “entire 
latter the size is greater and the color much darker. : This? 
division is particularly interesting, many new facts 1B © gv 
the breeding habits, ete., of these birds, brought to light gees 
eral recent travellers in the Northwest, being published T s 
the first time. The synonymy of the North American 8” 
*¥For example, the following are now given as the specific name ot o í 

:— Nyctale Tengmalmi var. Richardsoni; Nyctea Scandiaca Vit aril 


BaD kts ee OF I ee 


es 
Se oh Ee Pl ae 


The same gener 
s of Barer 
that in the 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 551 


is given as follows :—I. Falco (Hierofalco) gyrfalco Linn., var. 
candicans Gm. (= Groenlandicus Daud.) of Greenland, wandering 
into Europe and North America; II. var. Islandicus Sabine, of 
Europe, Iceland, Greenland and North America; III. var. sacer, 
Forster, of interior of continental Arctic America; IV. var. Lab- 
radora Aud. 

On page 254, a figure of the curious Onychotes Gruberi Ridgw. 
is given. Buteo oxypterus is united to Swainsoni, and B. elegans 
to lineatus. The American rough-legged hawks (excepting the 
western Archibuteo ferrugineus) are given as one species, and that 
a variety (Sancti-johannis) of the European A. lagopus; the me- 
lanistic condition being now correctly regarded as a. frequent 
though purely individual peculiarity, like albinism. Halictus al- 
bicilla of Europe is included on account of its occurrence in 
Greenland. On page 329 it is stated that ‘‘the ‘bird of Wash- 
ington’ of Audubon was, without the least doubt, a very large 
immature female (of the bald eagle) in about the second year.” 
It is to be hoped that this question is now finally settled. 

The true Meleagris gallopavo is described as inhabiting the 
eastern province of North America, with var. Mexicana found 
from Texas and Arizona south into Mexico. The latter race is 
now considered to be the origin of the domesticated turkey. 

anace Franklini is united to Canadensis as a variety ; C. fuli- 
ginosus and Richardsoni to obscurus; and Bonasa umbelloides and 
Sabini to umbellus. Three species of Ptarmigan are enumerated : 
—I. Lagopus mutus var. rupestris of Arctic America, Greenland 
and Iceland ; II. L. albus, common to Europe and North America ; 
Ill. L. leucurus of Northwest America. Audubon’s L. Ameri- 
canus is united to the first species. 

In the Appendix are given a number of new facts in regard to 
the habits, distribution, and synonymy of species previously con- 
sidered, and one or two new species are added, as Harporhynchus 

direi Coues, Setophaga picta, Peucæa carpalis Coues, etc. It 
may here be remarked that while certain species are noted as hav- 
ing been obtained in Europe, as Galeoscoptes Carolinensis, Den- 
droica virens, Progne subi, Loxia leucoptera, Sturnella magna, etc., 
Similar mention is made of others whose claims to such notice are 
equally good, as Turdus migratorius, Coceygus Americanus, Har- 
porhynchys rufus, Regulus calendula, and a few others. <A glos- 
Sary of technical terms closes the volume. 


502 BOTANY. 


In concluding this imperfect sketch we would only add that for 
years this will be the standard work on the ornithology of North 
America, and that the volume or volumes on “t Water Birds” will 
be looked for with much interest by students and others interested 
in the birds of our country.— J. S. MERRILL. 


BOTANY. 

DISTRIBUTION or Atpine Prants.—M. De Candolle delivered 
at the late Botanical Congress at Florence a communication on 
the causes of the distribution of rare plants on the Alps. The 
author (M. De Candolle) explained that the preglacial Alpine 
flora was not able to exert a great influence on the existing 
flora, inasmuch as the great changes which took place during a 
glacial period had necessarily swept away this ancient vegetation. 
He could not agree with those who considered the Alps as 4 centre 
of diffusion of a special flora, but believed them rather to be the 
refuge ground for the plants, which, as the glaciers retired, had 
found conditions more favorable to their existence than in places 
lower down. In proof of this he observed that the richest pari of i 
the Alps for rare plants are those which were soonest deprived of 
glaciers, the ground having been thus cleared for the introduction 
of a more ancient flora, of which these rare plants arè remnants. 
The southern, the eastern, and the western slopes of the Alpat : 
successively cleared of the principal glaciers, and the Swiss Alps a 
received their flora first from the south, and then from the peas 
west. The author then asks, “ Why should the plants aoe we 
the glaciers retreat, and why should there be greater variety a 
this advancing vegetation?” In preglacial times there ice ee - 
moisture in the climate of Europe, and consequently the meee 
richer and more varied. After a time the climate became ae . 
and as the glaciers retired many plants were able to m 
themselves by advancing gradually over the ground as it rable 
unoccupied by glaciers, finding there conditions more ere a 
for their growth. Hence one can deduce the law that the p p 
and variety of Alpine floras depend on the antiquity % 
ntroduction. tain & 
_ Mr. Ball approved of M. De Candolle’s theory to 9 0° u 
tent, but he did not consider it sufficient to explain all the that : 
When, for instance, a rare species is to be found in we 


ZOOLOGY. 553 


one locality, it is natural to suppose that formerly it had oceupied 
all the intermediate ground, and that the glacier coming through 
the midst of it had divided it into two groups. He was also 
unable to understand how M. De Candolle’s theory could explain 
the fact of certain plants growing vigorously in limited spots 
without extending their area, and was inclined to attribute this 
limitation to the nature of the rock, its chemical properties, etc., 
— serpentine, for instance, almost always supports a peculiar vege- 
tation; thus the Engadine Valley, which must have very recently 
been freed from glaciers, is remarkably rich in rare plants.— M. 
Tchiatcheff remarked that in Asia Minor he could find no trace 
of glacial action which could help to explain the distribution of 
Alpine plants.— Journal of Botany. 


Amount or WATER CONTAINED IN THE DIFFERENT Parts OF A 
PLant.— At the same meeting M. Galeznoff gave the result of his 
researches in calculating the amount of water contained in the 
different parts of a plant. By dividing a trunk into a number of 
pieces from the base upwards, he found invariably that the quantity 
ot water increases from the base towards the summit. f the 
four species studied by him, he found Pinus sylvestris contained 
most moisture in the trunk, and Acer the least. Betula and Pop- 
ulus tremula were intermediate. In Pinus the bark is drier than 
the wood, and in Acer more moist. In Betula it is drier in the 
Winter and spring, and more watery in summer and autumn. The 
Contrary takes place in the case of the poplar. In the branches 
the Same law holds good but their bases are drier than the por- 
tion of the trunk from which they take their rise ; and the petioles 
are more watery than the leaves. In the flowers, the perianth, 
the filaments and the styles contain more water than the anthers. 
— Journal of Botany. 


ZOOLOGY. 

RECENT RESEARCHES ON TERMITES AND STINGLESS HONEY-BEES. 
~The accompanying letter, just received from Fritz Miller, in 
Southern Brazil, is so interesting that it appears to me well worth 
Publishing in “ Nature.” His discovery of the two sexually ma- 
ture forms of Termites, and of their habits, is now published in 

wasg ; nevertheless few Englishmen will have as yet seen the 


554 ZOOLOGY. 


In the German paper he justly compares, as far as function is 
concerned, the winged males and females of the one form, and 
the wingless males and females of the second form, with those 
plants which produce flowers of two forms, serving different ends, 
of which so excellent an account, by his brother, Hermann es 
has lately appeared in ‘* Nature.” 

The facts, also, given by Fritz Müller with respect to the oa 
less bees of Brazil, will surprise and interest entomologists— 
CHARLES Darwin. 

“ For some years I have been engaged in sany the atar 
history of our an of which I have had more than a dozen 


living species at my disposition. The several species differ much — 
more in their “habits and in their apa than is generally : wale 
sumed. In most species there are two sets of neuters, Vila 


laborers and soldiers ; but in some speelsa ( Calotermes Hag.) the 
laborers, and in others (Anoplotermes F. M.) th 


from what we see ba social meee bi aro pa 


(or so-called neuter) Termites. In some species 
male soldiers may even externally be distinguis 
female ones. I have been able to confirm, in almos 
species, the fact already observed by Mr. Smeathman 


species. Teades the nged males and pane E 

duced in vast numbers, aca which, eae ing the termit 
swarms, may intercross with those ’ produced i in other comm 
there are wingless males and females which never leave 
itary where they are ey ~ which ei the wi ae ne 
females, whenever a community does not find i cies of Bl : 


king or queen. Once I found a king (or a speci 
: om 
one such ¢ 


sale they raised solely a few "wingless m ales an itary; 
free from danger, might remain in “their native terre intel 
who does not admit the paramount importance O 


ce 
z 


ZOOLOGY. 555 


must, of course, wonder why this latter manner of reproduction (by 
wingless individuals) has not long since taken the place through 
natural selection of the production of winged males and females. 
But the wingless individuals would of course have to pair always 
with their near relatives, whilst by the swarming of the winged 
Termites a chance is given to them for the intercrossing of indi- 
viduals not nearly related. 

rom Termites I have lately turned my attention to a still more 
interesting group of social insects, viz., our stingless honey-bees 
(Melipona and Trigona). Though a high authority in this matter, 
Mr. Frederick Smith, has lately affirmed that “we have now 
acquired almost omplete history of their economy,” I still 
believe that almost all remains to be done in this respect. I 


think that even their affinities are not yet well established, and 
: : ë 


o 
when once established, should have migrated from the ventral to 
the dorsal side, or vice verså. ` 

-The queen of the hive-bee fixes her eggs on the bottom of the 
empty cells; the larvee are fed by the laborers at first with semi- 
digested food, and afterwards with a mixture of pollen and soem 


our cies, is surprised at the amou a 

which the mot species aoe in the structure of their hind legs, 

oe wings, etc., and not less are the differences they exhibit 

In their habits. 

iik have hitherto observed here fourteen species of Melipona and 
‘tigona, the smallest of them scarcely exceeding two millimetres 


556 _ ZOOLOGY. 


in length, the largest being about the size of the hive-bee. 
of these species lives as a parasite within the nests of some 
species. I have now, in my garden, hives of four of ours 
in which I have observed the construction of the combs, t 

f the eggs, etc., and I hope I wren soon be able to a 

of some more species. Some of our species are so elega k 
beautiful and so extremely intarsating, that they wold ea 108 
precious acquisition for zoological gardéns or large hot-house 
nor do I think that it would be very pia Ae bring them | 
Europe and there to preserve them in a living 

If it be of some interest to you I shall be aie tó give a 
time to T an oa of what I may observe in “ny i 
apiary. — Nat 


Tue European House Sparrow.—I regret very much that ke 
naturalist generally so well informed as Dr. Coues, sl ai 
giving what my own observations compel me to believe to bet 
altogether wrong statement in regard to the house sparrow, Pt 

lished in the July number of the Narurauist. Dr. Coues 
that he was prejudiced against the sparrow from the beginn 
He expected they would molest our native species ; he was always 
opposed to their introduction, and he is now apparently only t00 5 
glad to condemn them on the scantiest evidence. Isu 
this is too important a question to be thus dismissed, esp! 
by a gentleman like Dr. Coues, who has enjoyed no opportun ; 
of knowing from his own observations par the opinions 
so free to express are well founded or no 

The statement of Mr. Gentry I Sie discredit. Ido? 
lieve that the habits either of the house sparrow or of the 
blue-bird and our native sparrows are different in ae 
from what they are in Massachusetts. I believe that i a 
has befallen these birds in Pennsylvania, Mr. Gentry does 
sign the right cause and that the house sparrow is innocent. 
have the sparrows in Boston in great abundance, and el 
I have day after day, summer and winter, closely watched 

They never molest, attack, or tr y to drive away any bi 
their own species, and that only from amatory intencos, 1 
times the males are pugnacious against other males 0 
Species, but nothing more. “a 
The females are not at all pugnacious under any Cir 
In Boston the robin has never been so abundan 
summer, and the sparrows certainly never seem s0 


. 


ZOOLOGY. 557 


They feed together, side by side, and the only molestation the 


robin experiences is that once in a while a sparrow steals the worm 
it has dragged from the ground. But the sparrow has to do this 
slyly, and to drive off a robin would be an undertaking simply 
absurd. 

Then as to the native sparrows. If any one of these seems ex- 
posed to being driven off it would be our little amiable chipping 
sparrow. Before we had their European cousins this bird was 
hardly known as a visitant to our city. Now they have become 
abundant, in their season, and what is very remarkable, they seek 
out and keep company with the European. Any day you please, 
in summer, you may see the house sparrow and the chipping 
sparrow feeding together in close proximity and you will never see 
the former molest or interfere with his confiding companion. 

As for the blue-birds, the boot is on the other leg. The blue- 
birds do molest and drive off the sparrow, and have been known 
to take possession of and keep boxes put up for and belonging to 


‘the sparrow. My friend, John R. Poor, Esq., of Somerville, had 


succeeded in introducing the house sparrow into his grounds, in 
the early spring of 1871. They had begun to build in the boxes 
put up for their homes, when blue-birds appeared and drove them 
off, and made use of their boxes! 

As for the opinion expressed by Dr. Coues that the sparrow is 
not needed here, that the good they do is overrated, etc., I will 
not trespass upon your space now by seeking to controvert an 
opinion so utterly confronted by overwhelming evidence all around 
us. I will only refer him to the report of the French parliament 
based upon the most thorough investigations of Prévost, placing 
the sparrow at the head of the useful birds of France; to the tes- 
timony of George N. Lawrence as to their destruction of the 
measure-worm in New York, Brooklyn, Newark, etc., and to our 
own city forester of Boston, who can inform him, if he discredits 
my testimony, how the sparrows here did what man was unable to 
do in arresting the ravages of the Orgyia leucostigma.—Tuomas 
M. Brewer. 


Fish Currurr IN tHe Orpen Tıme. — Most of the popular 
accounts of artificial fish breeding, and the artificial stocking of 
rivers with fish, state that this is a very new thing. May I call 


the attention of the readers of the Narurarrst to the following 


558 ZOOLOGY. 


extract from Kalm’s Travels. It will be remembered that at the 
suggestion of Linneus, Peter Kalm was sent to North America — 
“ to make such observations and collect such seeds and plants as 
would improve the Swedish husbandry, gardening, manufactures, 
arts and sciences.” He arrived at Philadelphia in Sept., 1748, 
and left the country early in 1751. He recorded his observations 
on nearly every conceivable subject, from “the way of eating oys- 
ters” and the “art of making apple dumplings” to the most 
interesting observations on society, politics, agriculture and natu- 
ral phenomena and productions. The expenses of his trip were 
paid in part by the government of Sweden, in part by the Uni- 
versity of Upsala, by societies and private subscription, Kalm 
himself contributing to the extent of his ability, “ so that at his 
return he found himself obliged to live upon a very small pittance.” 
I quote from the English translation of his travels, published 7 
London in 1772. After speaking of the diminution of fish in 
various rivers, caused by “immoderate catching of them at all 
times of the year” and “the numerous mills on the rivers and 
brooks” whose dams prevent the fish from passing “ up the ri" T 
in order to spawn,” he says (Vol. 1, p. 229): 
“ Mr. FRANKLIN told me, that in that part of New England 7 
where his father lived, two rivers fell into the sea, in one of which 
in the other not onP. 
et the places where these rivers discharged themselves intà pai i 
ın They h peg 
herrings came in spring to pte their spawn, they alway pa: 
up the river where they used to catch them, but never wal re 
the other. This circumstance led Mr. Franklin’s father, ole Se 
settled between the two rivers, to try whether it was not az w 


purpose he put out his nets, as they were coming up fo 
and he caught some. He took the spawn out of them It was 


same place where they were hatched, and from whe 
put out to sea; being, as it were, accustomed to it. 
He had already said (p. 23) that “ Mr. Benjamin a 
whom Pennsylvania is indebted for its welfare, and the * 
world for many new discoveries in electricity, was the ae 
took notice of me, and introduced me to many of bS} 


ZOOLOGY. 559 


He gave me all necessary instructions and shewed me his kindness 
on many occasions.” Here is another item that is of interest. 
While speaking of New York, and the oysters found there, he goes 
on (I, p. 187),—‘* Lossters are likewise plentifully caught here- 
abouts, pickled much in the same way as oysters, and sent to 
several places. I was told of a remarkable circumstance about 
these lobsters, and I have afterwards frequently heard it men- 
tioned. The coast of New York had already European inhabitants 
for a considerable time, yet no lobsters were to be met with on 
that coast ; and though the people fished ever so often, they could 
hever find any signs of lobsters being in this part of the sea; 
they were, therefore, continually brought in great well-boats from 
New England, where they are plentiful ; but it happened that one 
of these well-boats broke in pieces at Hellgate, about ten English 
miles from New York, and all the lobsters in it got off. Since that 
time they have so multiplied in this part of the sea, that they 
"o now caught in the greatest abundance.” —Wm. H. BREWER. 


THE INFLUENCE OF THE NERVES UPON THE CHANGE OF COLOR 
or Fish anp Crustacea.—A change of color is observed in 


Many fish. It may be rapid and intense, as in the chameleon, 


but lacking its variety. Pouchet studied this phenomenon in a 
fish-breeding pond in Concarneau, among species of Blennius, Go- 
bius and Pleuronectids. In a former communication to the Acad- 
emy of Science, Pouchet reported that this change of color of the 
surface of the fish, corresponding to the color of its surroundings, 
originated in the brain, and the impression was caused by the ac- 
tion of the surrounding medium upon the retina. With the ex- 
tirpation of the eyes this power of the animal disappeared. The 
linded pleuronectide receives a subdued tint which remains, 
whatever be the color of the surroundings. This neutral coloring 
Seen upon the entire body may be called a paralysis of the pig- 
ment cells. Pouchet tried to prove the influence of the nerves 
upon the pigment cells in the following experimental manner. 
Young Pleuronectide that changed their color with rapidity were 
kept in a tank with a brown bottom; before severing the nerve 
they were put into another tank, the bottom of which was covered 
with sand; here the specimens operated upon became bleached. 
ept those portions especially influenced by the nerves, they 
their dark color. By separating the spinal cord no such 


560 ZOOLOGY. 


result was observed. When the trigeminal nerve was severed, all 
of the pigment cells on that side of the head supplied by it were — 
paralyzed. The animal operated upon, kept in a tank with a sandy — 
bottom, had a faded color, only a small portion of the head rè 
mained dark, a smaller or larger portion, depending upon how 
large a part of the trigemimus was severed. A corresponding 
result followed the separation of the spinal nerves. The cowrsè 
of the severed nerve was followed by a dark colored stripe; ® 
the back of the pleuronectide, zebra-like lines were seen. There 
sultless severing of the spinal cord proves, that the influence that | 
a spinal nerve has upon the coloring cells does not pro 
the spinal cord. The splanchnic and sympathetic nerves are aged | 
brought into question. The severing of the former gives no result, 
If on the contrary the sympathetic nerve is severed anywhere on 
the inferior portion of the vertebral canal, paralysis of all of the : 
pigment cells of the skin occurs, posterior to the cut. op oF ; 
position of the fine delicate sympathetic nerve makes it impossible : 
to divide without injuring the neighboring parts. The i 
vives the operation two and three days. During this time it Gi i 
light and half dark colored. Similar trials made upon the ee 
maxillary nerve and artery, both of which lie superficially ane 
accessible, make it possible that the real nerve stem which reg fe | 
the movement of the pigment cells is not the one that aceon e 
the blood-vessel. Pouchet tried cutting the sympathetic nee” : 
its origin, behind the articulation of the suspensorium, borta 
_ such result as was anticipated. The length of time that i : B 
ysis of the pigment cells lasts, after the nerve is severed, . Me 
fully known ; it has been found to remain some weeks as mars” 
at first. The paralyzed portions upon the surfa pee 
ceive this mixed color, like the blind pleuronectida mar z 
light, according as the remaining portion of the skin is m yee: 
by the surroundings. Poisoning the fish with curare, $ 
morphine, veratria and sontonin has no especial influence | 
change of color. i that bad 
The influence of habit was marked. A pleuronectiðe ith 
lived a long time in a tank, the bottom of which was i fot | 
sand, when removed to one with a brown bottom, TORE — 
days before it fully received a corresponding color. 
Pouchet noted his observations daily, and came 
sion that the change of color is at times influenced, 


{ 
: 
i 
; 
i 

: 


to the coni 
put that 


ZOOLOGY. 561 


origin of the same, is not yet well understood. At certain hours 
during the day, when it is cloudy for instance, those spots in the 
operated animals which were in a paralyzed state were scarcely to 
be perceived, and again in an hour or so later, they stood out in a 
very marked contrast, in color, to the rest of the skin, without 
the foundation color having changed. 

The power of bringing the color into harmony with the sur- 
rounding medium among the crustacea, was remarkably shown in 
the Palemon serratus. Animals from three to four centimetres 
long are the best to experiment upon, placed in porcelain vessels - 
with black or white bottoms. The crabs that fishermen bring 
ashore have a rose or a dark lily color; if they are put into ves- 
sels with black or white bottoms in twenty-four hours, they will 
assume a color wholly unlike each other. Those in the white dish 
are yellowish, almost colorless, as if they had just shed their skin, 
and those in the dark colored dish are of a brown red color. When 
changed the pale one into the dark colored dish, and vice versa, they 
change color in a corresponding manner. The change of a pale 
one to a dark color, was more rapid than the reverse. Under favor- 
able conditions we can create a yellow, red and blue Palemon. If 
a foot is removed when any one of these colors is present, and put 
into a solution of sugar, the three colors appear successively be- 
fore the eye. The microscope reveals the sequel to this. If the 
Pigment cells are pressed together like balls, then they are too 
minute to mirror themselves upon the retina. As soon as the an- 
imal is placed upon a dark ground the coloring cells are distended 
and send out little branches on all sides; then they become per- 
ceptible to the eye. The animal becomes red rose colored, when 
nothing weakens the lively color of the pigment cells; as the 
branches of the latter distend under the hypodermis they receive a 
cobalt color and the carmine of the pigment cells becomes thereby 
browned, and thus the Palæmon takes on a color corresponding to 
the foundation. If the coloring cells contract again, the blue re- 
Mains six or seven hours in the hypodermis and then gradually dis- 
appears. With the Palemon as with fish, the change of color is 

Xe result of visual impressions. — 
_ Among animals whose eyes Pouchet extirpated, a continuous 
dark color was observed and continued during the entire time, 
thirty -four days. By severing the nerves, an explanation of the 
nomena was not attained. 
AMER NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 36 


562 ZOOLOGY. 


Pouchet adds in conclusion, that in the eyeless jipe be 
pigment cells are wanting.— (Translated by Dr. Mary 
from Schmidt's Jahrbücher, No. 9,18 72). 


Tue Corron Worm.—I have already shown that this insect is 
first described and named scientifically by Hübner in 1822, as 
Aletia argillacea from Brazil. It is an inhabitant of more south 
ern latitudes than the cotton belt of the Southern States. Ihave 
shown that the insect is found during the winter as a moth, not 
from “ analogy,” but fact. I have also shown that the insect dies 

` out in the central and northern portions of the cotton belt every 
year, and is replaced the succeeding year by immigration from 
more southern localities, and where the cotton plant is perennial. 
Prof. Glover’s observations on the moth seem to me to be gener- 
ally correct and reliable ; on the other hand, Prof. Riley’ s remarks 
in the Sixth Missouri Report are, where Prof. Glover is cope 
dicted, a “ too hasty generalizing,” and show nowhere any oti : 
acquaintance with the subject. The moths have been collected by 
Prof. Packard on an island in Salem harbor, Mass. ; and by Mr. | 
Burgess in Massachusetts Bay, flying over the water, and by BY 
self about Buffalo, N. Y. The worm never attacks the young cot- | 
ton in Central Alabama in the spring or early summer, but appears | 
at its earliest at the end of June, and is invariably pen : 
flights of the adult moth. Since in Central Alabama insect lie 
begins as early as March (and before then the “ hybernated A 3 
ton moth has disappeared) what is the Aletia argillacea doing y 
tween that date and July, when the worm appears? And why | 
the young cotton not attacked in May by the worms from the co : 
deposited by the “‘hybernating” moths? If the 
moths lay eggs, their progeny perish from lack of food. boil : 
chrysalides are killed by frost, and there is great aan : of : 
the completion of the final brood of moths arising from the atts : 
the insect and the approach of the winter—A. R. GROTE. 


and pups 


Larva or ÅNOPTHALMUS AND ADELOPS. — The larv® à 
of Anopthalmus, from Salt cave near Mammoth, were di 

in May last by Mr Sanborn and myself while engaged in pe 
ing the caves of Kentucky under the auspices of the wea. 
Survey of Kentucky. The larve of Anopthalmus Wer y 
running under stones on the sand in damp situations in £ a 
with the beetles, while the pupæ were found lying ™ in lit 


ZOOLOGY. 563 


'holesʻin the same situation and at the same date. The larva is 
more closely allied to that of Pterostichus nigrita, figured by 
Schiédte, than any I have seen figured. The body, however, is 
rather slenderer, the head much longer and narrower, and the 
mouth parts longer, while the caudal appendages are shorter. 
The end of the body is like that of Harpalus and Stenolophus as 
figured by Schiddte, but the form of the mandibles is more like that 
of Harpalus. There are no eyes, and the body is white and soft, 
not chitinous as in Carabid larve generally. There is no sculp- 
turing on the head or thoracic segments. 

The larvee of Adelops hirtus has a body somewhat like that of 
Agathidium, but the head is very much larger and as wide and 
long as the prothoracic segments. It is white, and I can perceive 
no eyes. The body tapers rapidly from the prothorax to the end, 
and is provided with long hairs.. The antenne are large and long. 
The larve of these beetles have not yet been discovered in Europe. 
_—A. S. PACKARD, Jr. ; 


New Varrery or Brun Grospeak.—Several Mexican examples 
of G. cerulea examined, uniformly differ from the United States 
bird in the following particulars: they are larger; wing 3°70 in- 
‘stead of 3-40, tail 3-00, as against 2°70; total length about 7-00. 
The bill, in particular, is notably larger every way, and especially 
deeper, with a more swollen upper mandible and more curved ridge. 
‘Length of culmen 0°70, extreme depth about the same; in G. cœ- 
‘Tulea, culmen 0:60, depth decidedly less. It is mostly light brown- 
‘sh horn-color, instead of mostly blackish. I see no difference in 
tie Plumage. This appears to be the resident Mexican form, and 
to be quite as “good” a variety as many of those now current. It 
may be termed G. cærulea var. eurhyncha.—E.uiorr Cours. 


_ Dovorrnism xy Gart Frres.— Mr. H. F. Bassett (Canadian 
Entomologist, v, 91) states that Cynips q. operator is double 
brooded ;. thirty of one brood of females ovipositing in the buds of 
the oak, and again some of a second brood ovipositing in the 
young acorns of Quercus ilicifolia. From these and other facts he 
Jnfers “ that all our species that are found only in the female sex 
“re Tepresented in another generation by both sexes, and that the 
two broods are, owing to seasonal differences, produced from galls 
that are entirely distinct from each other.” This confirms Walsh’s 
discovery of dimorphism in the Cynips (see Amer. Ent. ii, p. 320). 


564 ZOOLOGY. 


Sweer Scenrep Ants.*—I have just returned from Mr. A.J. 
Lauderdale’s, where I had been on a visit of inquiry in reference 
to the sweet ants. The whole family were present, and all declare 
that they have often smelt them, when by accident, in their noe 
turnal visits, one would get crushed under foot. They have also 
captured them and smelt their sweet perfume when crushed be 
tween the fingers. Capt. Lauderdale states that the odor which 
the ants emitted on being crushed surpassed in sweetness any per 
fumery he had ever seen; that he had repeatedly searched for 
them since he evacuated the place, without success; that the hor- 
ticultural ants had, since the house was left unoccupied, filled up 
the fireplace with bushels of sand; and gave it as his opinion that 
they had driven off the fragrant ants. My son examined them 
and pronounced it the sweetest odor he had ever experienced. ; 

These ants are extremely rare, but that they do exist there 18 
but little doubt.—Gipron Lincecum, Long Point, Texas. 


Rosser Ants.*—Once upon a time there dwelt in my yard a flour- 
ishing colony of the very smallest species of black ant. Tae 
vants about my cook house had spilt a quantity of syrup which run 
through the floor. The little ants had found it, and seemingly the : 
entire population were out and busy packing it away to thoi g | 

The microscope showed that they carried the syrup in, Ot Š 
abdomen. But before they had secured all the syrup, I peg 
there was great excitement along their road. The larger, 3 D 
erratic ants had discovered them while carrying home ie : 
and were taking it away from them. It was really pat ae 
observe the ruthless manner in which they slaughtered ma 
the helpless little ants of their distended sacks of sweetness: bled 

ey grabbed up the heavily burdened little fellows, er p? , 
them, and, biting open the abdomen, drew out the ful wie : 
seemed to swallow it; then, casting the lacerated ome vod : 
they furiously sprang upon another of the panic-stricken 5 
and repeated the horrid operation. Millions of these © 
butchers were at work; and soon, on account of their oe 
populous city was exterminated.—G. LINCECUM. 


i have | 
ICHNEUMON PARASITES OF ANTHRENUS LARV#- larve found 
ceived from Mr. E. S. Cassino two small ichneumo? s pel 


titution, and published by 


i = Q sth ¿$ Ins 


* oO, eee ors 
- sion of Professor Henry. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 565 


on July 30th in that of the Anthrenus. We are not aware that 
this destructive museum pest is known to be thus affected. 


LARVÆ or MEMBRACIS SERVING AS MILK CATTLE TO A Beg.—Fritz 
Miiller has observed in Brazil a larva of a leaf-hopper (Umbonia 
indicator Fairm.) which is used, like the Aphides by the ants, 
as milch cattle by a species of stingless bee (Trigona cagafogo 
Mill.) This bee is fond of oily matters, and feeds on carrion, 
old stinking cheese and oil secreted by various plants. Although 
stingless, it possesses a very intense venom, which causes a most 
lively irritation in the skin. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 

A TRUE GEOGRAPHY or THE Brarn.—It has until lately been 
supposed that the convolutions of the cerebrum are entirely con- 
cerned in purely intellectual operations, but this idea is now at an 
end. It is now evident, from recent researches, that in the cere- 
bral convolutions—that is, in the part of the brain which was be- 
lieved to minister to intellectual manifestations—there are nerve- 
centres for the production of voluntary muscular movements in 
various parts of the body. It has always been taught that the 
convolutions of the brain, unlike nerves in general, cannot be 
stimulated by means of electricity. This, although true as regards 
the brains of pigeons, fowls, and perhaps other birds, has been 
shown by Fritsch and Hitzig to be untrue as regards mammals. 
These observers removed the upper portion of the skull in the 
dog, and stimulated small portions of the exposed surface of the 
cerebrum by means of weak galvanic currents, and they found 
that when they stimulated certain definite portions of the surface 
of the convolutions in the anterior part of the cerebrum, move- 
ments are produced in certain definite groups of muscles on the 
pposite side of the body. By this new method of exploring the 
functions of the. convolutions of the brain, these investigators 
showed that in certain cerebral convolutions, there are centres for 
the nerves presiding over the muscles of the neck, the extensor 
and adductor muscles of the forearm, for the flexor and rotator 
muscles of the arm, the muscles of the foot, and those of the face. 

ey, moreover, removed the portion of the convolution on the 
left side of the cerebrum, which they had ascertained to be the 
centre for the movements of the right forelimb, and they found 


566 ANTHROPOLOGY. 


that after the injury thus inflicted, the animal had only an impet- 
fect control over the movements of the part of the limb in ques- 
tion. Recently Dr. Hughlings Jackson, from the observation of 
various diseased conditions in which peculiar movements occur in x 
distinct groups of muscles, has adduced evidence in support ated 
the conclusion that in the cerebral convolutions are localized the i 
centres for the production of various muscular movements. With — 
in the last few months these observations have been greatly ats 
tended by the elaborate experiments of my able colleague in King’s 
College, Prof. Ferrier. a 
Adopting the method of Fritsch and Hitzig—but instead of 
using galvanic he has employed Faradic electricity, with which, 
strange to say, the investigators just mentioned obtained no very 
definite results—he has explored the brain in the fish, frog, dog, 
cat, rabbit and guinea-pig, and lately in the monkey. The results 
of this investigation are of great importance. He has explored 
the convolutions of the cerebrum far more fully than the German 
experimenters, and has investigated the cerebellum, corpora quad- 
rigemina, and several other portions of the brain not touched upos 
by them. There is, perhaps, no part of the brain whose function, 
has been more obscure than the cerebellum. Dr. Ferrier has wi ; 
covered that this ganglion is a great centre for the movements 
the muscles of the eyeballs. He has also very carefully n ot 
out in the dog, cat, ete., the various centres in the convolutions 
the cerebrum, which are concerned in the productions of moy? : 
ments in the muscles of the eyelids, face, mouth, tongues nig da io 
fore and hind feet, and tail. He confirms the doctrine that t! ee 
ptic thalamus 


major and its neighboring convolutions. 
in the case of the higher brain of the monkey 
found in the dog or cat—to wit, a portion in the fro 
brain, whose stimulation produces no muscular movemen mi 
may be the function of this part, whether or not it seh B 
isters to intellectual operations, remains to be seen. pe pe 
searches of Fritsch, Hitzig, Jackson, and Ferrier, mark 196. of 
mencement of a new era in our knowledge of brain funo : 
all the studies in comparative physiology there will. be pg 
interesting, and few so important, as those in which eee ebrate : 
Centres will be mapped out in the brains throughout the Y8 


nt part of BY | 


MICROSCOPY. 567 


series, A new, but this time a true, system of phrenology will be 
founded upon them; by this, however, I do not mean that it will 
be possible to tell a man’s faculties by the configuration of his 
skull, but that the various mental faculties will be assigned to defi- 
nite territories of the brain, as Gall and Spurzheim long ago main- 
tained, although their geography of the brain was erroneous.— 
UTHERFORD in Nature. 

Dr. Brown Sequard has called in question the conclusions given 

above in lectures delivered in Boston last March. 


Rate or Growrn mm Man.—In an interesting account of the 
life and works of -the late Belgian anthropologist and statistician, 
Adolphe Quetelet, published in-‘*La Revue Scientifique,” occur 
the following remarks on the rate of growth in man. “The most 
rapid growth takes place immediately after birth; the infant in 
the space of a year grows about two decimetres.* The increase 
in size diminishes gradually as its age. increases, up towards the 
age of four or five years; when about three it attains half the 
size which it is to become when full-grown. When from four to 
five years of age the increase in size is very regular each year up 
to sixteen years, that is to say up to the age of puberty; this 


` annual increase is nearly fifty-six millimetres. After the age of 


puberty the size continues to increase, but feebly ; when from six- 
teen to seventeen years old the individual increases four centi- 
metres (+60 inch). In the two years following, it increases only 


One inch. The total increase in size of man dies not appear to 
be entirely terminated when he is twenty-five years old. The 
mean size is a little larger in cities than in the country.” 


MICROSCOPY. 


EW Rorarine Mrcroscore.— Mr. Browning has introduced 
into Cae the continental fashion of attaching the bar of the 
microscope to the stage which is made to revolve carrying the 
body with it. This, of course, gives a rotating stage without any 
difficulty in regard to centring. Any tremor, also, connected 
With oe revolving apparatus is common to the object and the 

ifying apparatus, and is therefore of little consequence. 
For objects illuminated from below, this arrangement is prac- 


Pe + 


*A decimetre is one-tenth of a metre, g rly four inches. 


568 MICROSCOPY. 


tically as good as the more difficult and expensive plan of rotating 
the stage only; though for objects illuminated from above it is _ 
less convenient. It is also made binocular. 


Mountine Diatoms.—It is due to Dr. Christopher Johnston of 
Baltimore, to say that I am indebted to his very valuable papet, 
on the “ Preparation of Diatomacez” for the method of retaining 
the diatoms in place, mentioned in my note. If dry mounting is 
preferred, I have found by experiment, that the diatoms may be 
arranged as before stated on the cover, without the gelatine coat, 
and fixed in place by moistening with vapor as before stated. 
This plan has some advantages for real study. — W. W. RINER. 


Bioop Crrsrats.— The detection of blood by finding eo | 
tals is a much easier process than has been thought, and is ae 
much more generally applicable. In blood decomposed, or that 
has been treated by acids or caustic alkali, hæmoglobin is changed $ 
into a new substance; hematin is formed, whicb, combined ue 
hydrochloric acid, gives characteristic crystals. In order to obtain 
them we must proceed thus: A small fragment of dried blood we 
placed on a slide; it is dissolved in a drop of water, and ae gc 
portion of sea-salt is added. It is covered with a thin slide, atf 
pure acetic acid is made to pass between the two slides, and it R l 
heated over a spirit-lamp to boiling point. Acetic acid 18 si! | 
added, and it is heated afresh; this is repeated till the cry 5 
are obtained. They are rhomboidal, of a dirty brown color, qa 
characteristic, and require to be seen with a magnifying Pri “ 
three hundred or four hundred diameters. With the pies a 
quantity of blood this reaction can always be produced.— 40" 
Science Review. oh 
TOLLES NEW IMMERSION J7H.— About three weeks d 
ceived from Mr. R. B. Tolles a th immersion ora m 
to the one purchased by Mr. Crisp of London (see D eet 
March 1874). Mr. Tolles claims for this objective es a ny 


160. The performances of this new {th are at once 
markable, on Amphipleura pellucida (dry) it shows 


NOTES. 569 


strie with singular beauty. The “lines” appearing to shine with 
golden lustre. Specimens of Frustulia saxonica (very small) that 
have persistently defeated a fine modern ,sth in my possession, 
my Tolles wet 45, ag also a ;',th belonging to a friend, surrender 
at once to this 4th giving strong transverse strie. The markings 
of Surriella gemma (dry mounted) are shown very strongly. 
Either as dots or hexagons, mounted in balsam the markings are 
much stronger than I have before seen with any lens. The behav- 
ior of this 1th over Cymatopleura elliptica excited my unqualified 
admiration. In short “ this most interesting glass,” goes satisfac- 
torily through my collection of test diatoms. The illumination 
used was (for the most part) from a German student’s lamp. 
maximum performance of the 4th is obtained by working through 
a thick cover, say 74th of an inch; with such a cover the objective 
works well dry, using central or nearly central light. Perhaps 
the most valuable property of the new 4th will be recognized in 
its superior performances by centrally disposed light. With the 
experience I have had of the ith in this direction I am forced to 
the conclusion that these new system glasses of Mr. Tolles will 
become equally valuable to histologists and diatomists. — J. Ep- 
WARDS Smitu, Ashtabula, O., July, 1874. 


NOTES. 


Tae Hartrorp Meere of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science was in several ways a great success. The 
register exhibited the names of about 225 old members who were 
present, and 118 new members were elected. 165 papers were 
entered, ten of which were not passed by the Standing Committee 
for the want of abstracts, and twenty others were either withdrawn 
by their authors or declined by the Sectional Committees, leaving 
sixty-six papers in Section A, and sixty-nine in Section B. Of 
those in Section B, ten were given by title only, and the rest were 
read by their authors before the section or proper subsection, and 
Were more or less discussed. Section A formed a subsection of 
chemistry on Monday afternoon, which was very strongly repre- 
sented and held its session until Tuesday evening. The additional 
‘terest taken by the chemists in the Hartford meeting was un- 
doubtedly owing to the resolutions passed at Northumberland, by 
Which they declared that it was unadvisable to form a separate 


570 NOTES. 


society, and agreed to enter the Association and establish a per 
manent subsection. Their action in this respect cannot be too 
heartily endorsed by the scientists of the country, for it is just 
such action, on the part of all the different bodies of scientific men 
that now annually meet independent of the Association, that is 
needed to make the American Association the great power in this 
country which the British Association has become in England by fs 
the united efforts of all persons interested in the advancement of 
science. We feel confident that it will not be long before the 
Association of Mining Engineers will realize the advantages to bè 
secured by uniting with the American Association, especially a38 
under the new constitution they could organize, as the chemists 
have done, as a permanent body. The entomologists were present i 
in goodly numbers, and while taking an active part in the meetings : 
of Section B, they also organized as a club and held separate evei: 
ing meetings, under the name of the Entomological Club of the i 
American Association. From much that was said and done at 
the recent meeting, it was very evident that a strong feeling bss 
expressed itself over all parts of the country in favor of & united i 
effort to make the future meetings of the American Association 3 i 
every way the expression of the advancement of science iN Ti 
country, and with this effort, which is simply the natural 


all the 2 


meetings. The geologists were as usual well represe iD 
formed a subsection for Monday and Tuesday, With Prof wn 
Dana in the chair. There were also more papers bearing g ings 
eral zoological questions this year than for several past MY" i 


teresting communications. On Monday Section B 
into Biology and Geology and continued to hold its ‘old 
subsections until Tuesday evening, when it held its me” 
with the exception of a very short one on Wednesday m0 H 

The older members were largely represented at this P past 
and a noticeable feature was the attendance of a number prof. 
presidents of the Association. Under this head we recalls 


@ 


NOTES. 571 


W. B. Rogers. who ranks as the first president, he being in office 
when the Association was formed by the enlargement of the older 
Association of Geologists and Naturalists. The presence of Prof. 
Rogers was greeted with joy, as his health has prevented his tak- 
ing his former active part in the meetings for several years. Pro- 
fessors Joseph Henry, J. D. Dana, F. A. P. Barnard, B. A. Gould, 
T. Sterry Hunt, Asa Gray, J. Lawrence Smith, and the retiring 
president, Prof. Joseph Lovering, were also present. 
he address of the retiring President gave universal satisfaction, 
and though bearing more on the section to which he specially be- 
longs than to Section B, we feel. that all our. readers will be glad 
to have us follow our course for several years and present it to 
- them in the following numbers of the NaTuRALIstT. 
The social element of the meeting was well developed, and 
though there was very little private entertainment given to the 
members by the residents, there was a large number of citizens 
who, as the Local Committee, took an active interest in the Asso- 
ciation, and in many ways made the meeting a very pleasant one. 
The only levee given to the Association was by Dr. Stearns on 
Thursday when a very enjoyable evening was. passed. Several 
Special invitations were received from the managers of the various 
institutions and large establishments in and about Hartford, and 
most of them were very generally accepted by members, and many 
very interesting works were visited.. The special excursions ar- 
ranged by the Local Committee were well planned and admirably 
carried out. The steamer excursion down the Connecticut to its 
mouth and return, on Saturday, was a perfect one and was greatly 
enjoyed by the several hundred persons who passed the day on 
e river; while the geologists, and all others who wished to go, 
had their full share in. the several afternoon excursions to Tariff- 
Ville and. the Portland quarries A and all who went on the afternoon 
“seursion to Cheneyville could only have experienced great pleas- 
ure at the sight, of this model and beautiful little village, where 
the silkworm’s slender threads are unwound and woven into sub- 
stantial fabrics cat oo. ee a Thursday, the day following 
“© adjournment, a very interesting excursion took place, and con- 
sisted of a trip through the most beautiful portion of the State to 
Lakeville and the iron mines.of Salisbury. : 
S Was expected, a large amount of time was occupied in dis- 
“"ssions relating to the new constitution, but as this very import- 


572 NOTES. 


ant matter was finally settled to the perfect satisfaction of all 
concerned, it was time well spent, and it is now believed that the ; 
future of the Association is firmly established on a basis that is 
fully adapted to the work it is to perform. The acceptance of the 

ct of Incorporation also gives an important legal existence to 
the Association which will add greatly to its power. The RK 
for the next meeting were elected under the new constitution, and 
very great additions to the interest and importance of the future — 
meetings are expected from the addresses of the Vice-Presidents : 
and the Permanent Chairmen of subsections. An important addi- 
tion to the Standing Committee is also secured by the new hed 
stitution, as under it the past Presidents are now life members of 
the Committee; and the Secretaries, as well as the Chairmen of | 
the sections, will be members of the Committee. In this way, the : 
Committee becomes a much larger body, consisting of the beet 
rans of American Science as well as the active officers of the 
Association, and will be fully capable of performing the. impa 
tant work that devolves upon it. It is also believed that by bi | 
election of the Secretaries of the sections a year in advance they : 
will fully realize the importance of the position and the respons 
bilities which they accept. 

The very cordial invitation which came from D 
Association to hold its next meeting in that city, W 
tendered by the Governor of the State, the Mayor ° 
and the Detroit Scientific Society, that it was impossible m 
Association to do anything but accept, and it was 
voted to hold the next meeting in Detroit, beginning 


etroit for thè 
as so warmly 

the 
unanimous? 
on the see 


Vice President of 


B, J. W. Dawson, of Montreal; 
tion, S. W. Johnson, of New Haven: Perma 
five years, F. W. Putnam, of Salem; General Secretary * 
H. Scudder, of Boston; Treasurer, W.. S. Vaux, of Phi mee 
Secretary of Section A, S. P. Langley, of Allegheny: Fei 


tary of Section B, N. S. Shaler, of Newport, Ky. 
„for the 
H. Seu 


— 


The officers of Section B, Natural History, 
meeting were :—Permanent Chairman, Mr. S. : : 
Cambridge ; Secretary, Prof. Theo. Gill, of Washingt? + 


NOTES. 573 


Committee, Prof. S. F. Baird, of Washington; Prof. E. T. Cox, 
of Indianapolis ; Prof. T. Sterry Hunt, of Boston. 

Subsection of Biology. Chairman, Rev. Dr. E. A. Dalrymple, 
of Baltimore ; Secretary, Mr. W. W. Bailey, of Providence. Sub- 
section of Geology. Chairman, Prof. James D. Dana, of New 
Haven; Secretary, Prof. E. W. Hilgard, of Ann Arbor. 


The following is a list of the papers read in Section B :— 
The Genera of Puriri — ipie 6 by Samuel H. Scudder. 
ry e 


Discovery of tw p lumt 
Ohi H. tide 

Present distribution of wo ane within the United States, by William H. Brewer. 

Further Contributions to ranim m eology, by Richard Owen. 


Change by Gradual Modification not = Daly ersal Law, by Thomas Meehan. 

On the Cotton Worm se argillacea Hübn), by Aug. R. Grote. 

On Sarracenia variolaris a Fly Catcher, by Dr. J. H. yeyar 

Darlin s eN kran k an snip leona Plant, by Wm. H. Canb 

The Lobster, by W. W. Whei 

On the PaK more partionlarly associated with Sarracenia variolaris (Spotted 
b 


V. Riley. 
On the Summer Dormancy of the Larve nn o arn Doubleday, with Remarks 


Glacial Phenomenon in the ies ieee ra John Muir. 


n 
lustance of Replacement of Injurious insects by Human scone yJ. L. LeConte. 
Geological Map of the bape St tates con Territories, anol Critical eat Explanatory 


of evolution, by Louis Els beg 
Oa the Habits and Transformations of Canthon Hudsonius (Forst,) the common 
“Tumble-dung,” by Charles bi Riley 
On the Larval Habits of ye Cantharid gen a Epicauta and Henous, by C. V. Riley. 
On the Origin of North Amer sere Union prsi oy Divni S. Morse. 


Claspers ; arman 
On the Composition of the Pottery of the — E. T. Cox. 
A Remarkable Ancient Stone Fortification in Clarke coal: Ind., by E. T. Cox. 
88 of Science in Maryland, by Mrs. Almira Liaceh helps. 
Paden of previous description of the net of Hyptiotes, by Burt G. Wilder. 
on the gestation of the little Brown Bat, by B. G- 
The relations of Amphioxus to the M Maa especially as e an chiefly 
yad i apparatus, PAE 
The relations of the Vertebrate Classes as indicated by a tabular lar arrangement o tof 
Ha so ere constant, peculiar, ge more or less common. 
History of New Hampshire, by C. H. Hitchcock. 
The morphological s significance aa ‘oxonomi value of the rectal pouch of Sela- 
On chians (Elasmobranchs), by B. G. 
the Signifizauce of Classes among arabai, by Theo. Gill. 


574 ‘NOTES. 


e Relations of Certain Genera of Cervide, by T 
rx oe the Vertebrate proce of Outagamie Co. or with mete. by. D.S. Jordan, 
Remains of an ancient earth work in Marblehead, Massachusetts, by J. J. H.G 
pen of forty- -fiye Indien grave s ining n Marblehead, by J.J. H 

Notes on some rare an f New York, by Geo. Ta i 
On the ascending process of the Aate dealing in Birds, by Edward S. Morse. 
Organ of Special Sense in the r mellibranchiate genus Yoldia, by Wm. A: Brooks. 
Notes on Tree Gre wth. by Asa Gra 
On the Disintegration of Rocks aod its Geological Significance, by T; S. Hunt. 
Equivalency of the Coal Meas of the United States = Europe, by C. A White 
The en and Geological charac a“ m ar Great Dismal Swamp and the 

Eastern Counties of Virginia, B. Web cre 
On the seat Character of the so- omer noe Peah by L. S. Burbank. : 
Notes on Natural Erosion by Sand in the Western territories, by — at 
The Recency of certain Volcanoes of the Western .. by G. K.G 
The Colorado Plateau Region as a field for goclogion! stndies, by “e K. r Gilberte: 
Small size of the brain in i pee Mammals, by.O. C. Marsh. 
Ancient Lake Basins of the Rocky neninn by O; C. Marsh. 
The Wings of Pterodactyls, ras O. C.. Marsh. 
On the Mechanical Condition of the Pebbles e g seme Conglomerate | manet 


1 


supposed flattening by pressure, by Wm 
On the Thickness of the Vi AA Tertiary, as ay by the Artesian borings st 
pes 


8 japi Sophie B. Her 
On contact of Trap and San si n the Connecticut Vale, by Wm. N. 
i e by 


On the Tra the Connecticut Va allay by E ard S. Dan 
An Inquiry Pci Sat the wore rsion of Thoroughbred JAPE 
Notice of a pair of Trap-door s from South Am a, by Chas. 


Traces of Loa Civilization 4 Monies, by Porter c. T 
Observations on the Mesozoic of North Carolina, by W. C. Kerr. 
We have already given an account of Dohrn’s zoologia ay 
ratory at Naples, and referred to the Anderson School si » 
History at Penikese, and the peripatetic laboratory APMM n 
up by Prof. Baird in connection with the United States Fish Co t 
mission. In the January number of the “ Archives de nd f 
Expérimentale,” etc., M. Lacaze-Duthiers gives an intere a 
count of the ‘Laboratory of PREE Zoology” ' este 
by him in 1872 at the suggestion of M. A. du Mesmil, dire” 
the higher education under the minister of public instruotan, | 
was opened on the coast at Roscoff, not far from Paris, 8° 
region zoologically rich. The funds devoted to the a | 


NOTES. 575 


papers which have been published by Lacaze-Duthiers, Perrier and 
Giard, the amount of work done is greater so far as we are aware 
than at any other laboratory of the sort. -An excellent feature of 
the “ Laboratory of Experimental Science” is that it is not to be 
permanently established at one spot, but every five or six years 
will be moved from place to place until the marine fauna of 
France shall be thoroughly investigated. In this way a series of 
works will gradually be produced on the fauna of France. 

There is still an opening in this country for just such schools as 
this, which combining general education and special research shall, 
in an inexpensive way, hold sessions of say, two months, extend- 
ing over a few years at a time at different points along our coast. 
For example, the southern colleges could send professors and a 
few advanced students to Beaufort, N. C.; the Washington and 
Georgetown colleges could combine and have a summer session at 
Old Point Comfort; the Pennsylvania Colleges could rendezvous 
at Cape May, while the western and northern colleges could con- 
tinue sending students to the Anderson School at Penikese. By 
mutual assistance and coöperation our extensive coast could be 
thoroughly explored and higher biological researches be carried 
on, as well as observations on the chemistry and physics of the sea. 


Tne Anderson School of Natural History at Penikese Island 
closed on the 29th of August. Fifty students received instruction 
including laboratory work and lectures from ten professors, and 
the degree of attention given and amount of original work done 
was gratifying. The moral success of the school is established, 
and we hope that want of means will not prevent the plans of the 
late Professor Agassiz from “being carried out. There is great 
heed of a physiological laboratory, a fish pond and other conven- 
lences, which in time we hope will be supplied. 


Tue U. §. Engineers have a party in the field exploring the 
territories west of the 100th meridian, under Lt. Wheeler, U. S. A. 

r. H. C. Yarrow is the naturalist, and Prof. E. D. Cope the pal- 
fontologist of the expedition. The party started from Denver, 
Col., about J uly 20th. Collections will be made in all branches of 
Natural History. The expedition will return October Ist. 


Dr. FERDINAND SroriczKa, the paleontologist to the geological 
Survey of India, died in India at Shayok, June 19th, aged thirty- 


576 BOOKS RECEIVED. 


six. A zoologist and geologist, his greatest work says “ Nature,” : 
was his account of the fossil fauna discovered in the Cretaceous — 
rocks of southern India. 

Tue number of visits paid during the year to the net | 
the British museum for the purpose of scientific research, wás 
1020. 

Upwarps of 21,000 herbarium specimens have been received 
(chiefly presented) from all parts of the world at the herbarium of 
the Royal Gardens at Kew. 

A new volume of Lacordaire’s Genera of Coleoptera has lately 4 
appeared. 


, 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Svo. 
Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1872-1873. With maps. pp, 1179 and 1957. É 
Ta ble s and format Revised "eain. Professional Papers, Corps of -~ . 


No. 12. Washington, 1873, pp. vo. p a 
Geo. FB Deseo of the a zepioration of the Yellowstone and Missouri Riv WE - “I 
nolds and F. V. Hayden, 1859-1860. Washington, 1869. With map. pp. 153. hd 7. Washing 
. Re eS ort u; waon the aa Yellowstone Expedition of 1870, By Augustus C. Dow incon da 
on, 
eo t y W.H. Hearding upon the Co eri essive Pow Pee are. 
Hemlock Timb “pi The. 6 I 1871. g B. E —e W ashington, 1872. hae aioe } 


i Penniman i in the Ute Comite, 1873, By E. H. Ruffner. Washington, l 
pp. 101 h 
Stability of Arches. By D. P. Woodbury. New York, 1858. With plates. p. 1. Sro- with 
Reconnaissance of the Yukon River, 1369) By Charles W. Raymond. W sings a nis ‘ 
map. gong 113, 8vo0, 


Secretary $ 
yfzplenation of the Pe ag River by W. F. Raynolds, communicated by the 933, to. : 
ar. ashington, 1 ith map. . 174, 8v0. i 
guttbrication of Iron on for Defensi ve Purposes, Washington, 1871. With plates. PP. m : 
upplement, 1872. With a 51, 4to. ugton, 
ten Look Gates, Weser Riv ver, raay: Translation, By G. Weitzel. pes" 


With plates. pp. 8, 
Effects of Sea ore nd Exposure upon the Iron-pile Shafts of the erm tse 
House. By John D Berns and Micah R. Brown. ceahing te Terá. be abate <5 
Potomac Aqueduct of ni Alexandria Canal, 1, 1835-1840, y William 1,4, y 
i - pp. ae 
Defenses of Vashington. J. G. Barnard. Washington, 1871. With platen son, 1510, Yol 
Geological Exploration of ye Efortieth Parallel. By Clarence King. io e 
TII, with plates and ailas: pp. 647. 1871. Vol. Yo with es By È g $” Williamson. New Yor! 
Use of the Barometer o ates ak Ap and Ree rr aissances. B; y 


ale 


; 
Pionier Report.—Exp lons in Nevada and oes, By 


p- sitiamson må W EBE 
E Aek of isi Wy “al ock, San Mi ancisco Harbor. By R. 8. W: jekt a 
ashington, 18 rith Daten., . 40, 4to. nd Arizonā; ; 
Maps.— ext rn Terri otas, „ete Pý 8. Military Map; New Mexic nd Arizona: T Spui a 
sas, etc.; Ye sat and Missouri Rivers; Nebraska and Dakota; india 1h 
Southeastern Nevada; Palenia a Lake, etc., etc. w. — ve 
` Tie Land and Fresh-water Shells of La Salle County, Ill. a Ww. 
p. 


okne i cademi ni- Bat m, 1868-1869. pp. 475. 1869-1870. to oe 
Transactions o, ron paps, Soctery f revi sig 1874. Yo vill, Part T. Pico uas. pP! 
Proceedings of the Zoological Society Be n, 1873. Part ILL, wit 


Oversight over det Kongelige Danski Videnskabernes Selskabs ae must 
tn ider i Aaret 1873. F koade mie Royale de Copenhague, NO- 


tor Avium Neotropicalium. Philli Lutley Sclater 
1873. pp. Tke PP r ee 
919-237. Marine Alge, By W.H. Grattann. London, W. C., 1874 
i Rupert « ni ; 
— ment of Natural History. Northwestern U po 
~ Marcy., Chicago, Ys 5 op. il, ahd f Missouri. ‘ait 
Report by the oan to the Governor. Universiiy of the State o! 
i b. Wita \ piatos. pp. 188; 8v0. i With 
_ Towa State Report on Insects, By C, E. Bessey. Des Moines, 187 


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AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vol. VIII.— OCTOBER, 1874. — No. 10. 
ec eTR TD 


EXPERIMENTS ON THE SUPPOSED AUDITORY 
APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO.* 


BY PROF. A. M. MAYER. 


Oum states in his proposition that the ear experiences a simple 
sound only when it receives a pendulum-vibration, and that it de- 
composes any other periodic motion of the air into a series of pen- 
dulum-vibrations, to each of which corresponds the sensation of 
asimple sound. Helmholtz, fully persuaded of the truth of this 
Proposition, and seeing its intimate connection with the theorem 
of Fourier, reasoned that there must be a cause for it in the very 
dynamic constitution of the ear; and the previous discovery by 
the Marquis of Corti of several thousandt rods of graded sizes in 
the ductus cochlearis indicated to Helmholtz that these were suit- 
able bodies to effect the decomposition of a composite sonorous 
wave by their co-vibrating with its simple harmonic elements. 
This supposed function of the Corti organ gave a rational expla- 
eee ORieh TS ic EC Ter ae 


ted, a few corrections by the author, from the American Journal of 
and Arts, Aug., 1874. 
t“ But rhe theory of consonance and 
ts solely on a minute nals of the sensations 0 This analy- 
sis could S been made by any cultivated ear, without the dof veh Des but the 
of pans se the saclay’ of appropriate m observation, 
ary degree. 


Meg felted i in an 


oe org organs of coe gly no immediate relation with the paces er of PAEA 
monics which rests keem on the facts of observation, on the beats o 

and of resultant sounds.” — Helmholtz, Tonempfindungen, p. 342. 
SS AEDST RARESA 


vibration 
10I SMOUN 


Somn eered, according to Act of Co gress, i be the year 1874, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF 
in the Office of the poorest of Co a on reins 
AMER. NATURALIST, V (577) 


578 AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO. 


nation of the theorem of Ohm, and furnished “a leading thread’ 
which conducted Helmholtz to the discoveries contained in his rè- 
nowned work, “ Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen.”* In this 
book he first gave the true explanation of timbre, and revealed te 
hidden cause of musical harmony, which, since the days of Pythsg 
oras, had remained a mystery to musicians and a problem to phil 
osophers. 

It may, perhaps, never be possible to bring Helmholtz’s by- 
pothesis of the mode of audition in thẹ higher vertebrates to the 
test of direct observation, from the apparent hopelessness of ever 
being able to experiment on the functions of the parts of the inner 
ear of mammalia. The cochlea, tunnelled in the hard temporal 
bone, is necessarily difficult to dissect, and even when 4 view $ 
obtained of the organ of Corti, its parts are rarely in situ; and, 
moreover, they generally have had their natural structure : 
by the acid with which the bone has been saturated to render it 
soft enough for dissection and for the cutting of sections for the 
microscope. ; 

As we descend in the scale of development, from the higher 
vertebrates, we observe the parts of the outer and middle ear dis 
appearing, while at the same time we see the inner ear w 
advancing toward the surface of the head. The external eat; W 
auditory canal, the tympanic membrane, and with the o 
now useless ossicles, have disappeared in the lower vertebra ; 
and there remains but a rudimentary labyrinth. i: we 

Althongh the homological connections existing between | i 
tebrates and articulates, even when advocated by naturale 
certainly admitted to be imperfect, yet we can hardly suppos? á 
the organs of bearing in the articulates will remain enpi: 
retrograde, but rather that the essential parts of thet . aerial 
of audition, and especially that part which receives = In- 
vibrations, will be more exposed than in higher ge 
deed, the very minuteness of the greater part of the vibratory 
would indicate this, for a tympanic membrane placed 1’ eap 
communication with a modified labyrinth, or even an moa 
sule with an outer flexible covering, would be useless to the g" 
number of insects for several reasons; first, such an * peor 
unless occupying a large proportion of the volume of $8 
ae = ane orgs! 
aa to Waldeyer, there are 6,500 inner and 4,500 outer Ge , 


AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO. 579 


would not present surface enough for this kind of receptor of vi- 
brations ; and secondly, all non-aquatic vertebrates have an inner 
ear formed so as to bring the aerial vibrations, which strike the 
tympanic membrane, to bear with the greatest effect on the audi- 
tory nerve filaments, and the minuteness of insects precludes this 
condition. Finally, the hard test, characteristic of the articulates, 
sets aside the idea that they receive the aerial vibrations through 
the covering of their bodies, like fishes, whose bodies are gener- 
ally not only larger and far more yielding, but are also immersed 
in water which transmits vibrations with 4} times the velocity 
of the same pulses in air and with a yet greater increase in 
intensity. For these reasons, I imagine that those articulates 
which are sensitive to sound, and also emit characteristic sounds, 
will prove to possess receptors of vibrations external to the gen- 
eral surface of their bodies, and that the proportions and situ- 
ation of these organs will comport with the physical conditions 
ary for them to receive and transmit vibrations to the inte- 
nor ganglia. 

Naturalists, in their surmises as to the positions and forms of 
the organ of hearing in insects, have rarely kept in view the 
important consideration of those physical relations which the 
organ must .bear to the aerial vibrations producing sound, and 
which we have already pointed out. The mere descriptive anato- 
mist of former years could be satisfied with his artistic faculty for 
the Perception of form, but the student of these days can only 
make progress by constantly studying the close relations which 
necessarily exist between the minute structure of the organs of 


ely, grea 


z want of appreciation of these relations, together with the fact 
: that many naturalists are more desirous to describe many new 
3 forms an to ascertain the function of one well known form, 
which may exist in all animals of a class, has tended to keep 


Dieciate this perhaps more than the naturalists themselves, who 
^re imbued with that enthusiasm which always comes with the 
ea Study of any one department of nature; for the perusal 

those long and laboriously precise descriptions of forms of 
organs, without the slightest attempt, or even suggestion, as to 


580 AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO. 


their uses, affects a physicist with feelings analogous to those expe 
rienced by one who peruses a well classified catalogue descriptive 
of physical instruments, while of the uses of these instruments le 
is utterly ignorant. 

The following views, taken from the ‘¢ Anatomy of the Inverte 
brata, by C. Th. v. Siebold,” will show how various are the opinions 
of naturalists as to the location and form of the organs of hearing 
in the Insecta. ‘There is the same uncertainty concerning the 
organs of audition (as concerning the olfactory organs). Exper- 
ence having long shown that most insects perceive sounds, this 
sense has been located sometimes in this and sometimes in that 
organ. But in their opinion, it often seems to have been forgotten, 
or unthought of, that there can be no auditory organ without hy 
special auditory nerve, which connects directly with an acoustic 
apparatus capable of receiving, conducting and concentrating the 
sonorous undulations. (The author who has erred most widely 12 
this respect is L. W. Clarke, in Mag. Nat. Hist., Sept., 1838, m 
has described at the base of the antenne of Carabus nemor 
Illig. an auditive apparatus composed of an Auricula, & n 
auditorius externus and internus, a Tympanum and Labyrinthus, 
of all of which there is not the least trace. The two white a 
spots at the base of the antennæ of Blatta orientalis, and ps 


z : 3 el 
Treviranus has described as auditory organs, are, 48 B yh ort 


auditory organs. But this view is inadmissible, 
already stated, except in the sense that the antenn®, li ah 
bodies, may conduct sonorous vibrations of the air; but, ot at 
admitting this view, where is the auditory nerve? for it is D ss 
all supposable that the antennal nerve can serve at the same 
the function of two distinct senses.) 
‘*Certain Orthoptera are the only 
been discovered, in these later times, a single orga 
conditions essential to an auditory apparatus. This gan bye 
sists, with the Acrididæ, of two fossæ or conchs, pie a met- 
projecting horny ring, and at the base of which is attac i 
brane resembling a tympanum. On the internal oe an eS 
membrane are two horny processes, to which is attach a 
tremely delicate vesicle filled with a transparent fuid nnecti 
senting a membranous labyrinth. This vesicle is 1B o: 


Insecta with which there has 
n having 


PAS Ore RT ae OF AORE See NN L eR eS nee Ba Page a or UES 


i 

es: 
A 
aS 


AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO. 581 


with an auditory nerve which arises from the third thoracic gan- 
glion, forms a ganglion on the tympanum, and terminates in the 
immediate neighborhood of the labyrinth by a collection of cunei- 
form, staff-like bodies with very finely-pointed extremities (primi- 
tive nerve-fibres ?), which .are surrounded by loosely-aggregated, 
ganglionic globules. (This organ has been taken for a soniferous 
apparatus by Latreille. J. Miller was the first who fortunately 
conceived that with Gryllus hieroglyphus this was an auditory 
organ. He gave, however, the interpretation only as hypothet- 
ical; but I have placed it beyond all doubt by careful researches 
made on Gomphoceros, Oedipoda, Podisma, Caloptenus and Trux- 
alis.”) 


“The Locustidæ and Achetidæ have a similar organ, situated 
in the fore-legs directly below the coxo-tibial articulation. With 
a part of the Locustidæ (Meconema, Barbitistes, Phancroptera, 
Phylloptera), there is on each side of this point a fossa, while with 
another portion of this family there are, at this same place, two 
more or less spacious cavities (auditory capsules) provided with 
orifices opening forward. These fossæ and these cavities have 
each, on their internal surface, a long-oval tympanum. The prin- 
cipal trachean trunk of the leg passes between two tympanums, 
and dilates, at this point, into a vesicle whose upper extremity is 
in connection with a ganglion of the auditory nerve. This last 
arises from the first thoracic ganglion, and accompanies the prin- 
cipal nerve of the leg. From this ganglion in question passes off 
a band of nervous substance, which stretches along the slightly 
excavated anterior side of the trachean vesicle. Upon this band 
is situated a row of transparent vesicles containing the same kind 
of cuneiform, staff-like bodies, mentioned as occurring with the 
Acridi The two large trachean trunks of the fore-legs open 
by two wide, infundibuliform orifices on the posterior border of 
the prothorax, so that here, as with the Acrididæ, a part of this 

chean apparatus may be compared to a Tuba Eustachii. With 
the Achetide, there is, on the external side of the tibia of the 
fore-legs, an orifice closed by a white, silvery membrane (tympa- 
num), behind which is an guditory organ like that just described. 
(With Acheta achatina and italica, there is a tympanum of the 
Same size, on the internal surface of the legs in question ; but it 


. Scarcely observable with Acheta sylvestris, A. domestica and A. 
campestris. ” 


582 AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO. 


Other naturalists have placed the auditory apparatus of diurnal 
lepidoptera in their club-shaped antenne ; of bees at the root of 
their maxille ; of Melolontha in their antennal plates; of Locusta 
viridissima in the membranes which unite the antenna with the 
head. 

I think that Siebold assumes too much when he states that the 
existence of a tympanic membrane is the only test of the existence 
of an auditory apparatus. It is true that such a test would apply 
to the non-aquatic vertebrates, but their homologies do not extend 
to the articulates; and besides, any physicist can not only e 
ceive of, but can actually construct other receptors of aerial vibes 
tions, as I will soon show by conclusive experiments. Neither 
can I agree with him in supposing that the antenne are only 
organs, for very often their position and limited motion would ex- 
clude them from this function ;* and, moreover, it has never been 
proved that the antennæ, which differ so much in their forms 10 
different insects, are always tactile organs. They may be used # 
such in some insects; in others, they may be organs of audition; 
while in other insects they may, as Newport and Goureau surmise, 
have both functions; for, even granting that Miiller’s law of = 
specific energy of the senses extends to the insects, yet the eae 
omy of their nervous system is not sufficiently known to oP 
the supposition that there may be two distinct sets of nerve fi 2i 
in the antennæ or in connection with their bases; 50 ae 
antennz may serve both as tactile’and as auditory organs 5 P the 
the hand, which receives at the same time the impression 3 jike 
character of the surface of a body and of its temperature ; a 
the tongue, which at the same time distinguishes the eins 
form, the temperature and the taste of a body. Finally ‘hat the 
objection to this statement : ‘*‘ Newport and Goureau think ti view 
antennz serve both as tactile and auditory organs. But th 
is inadmissible, as Erichson has already stated, except In yibrs- 
that the antenne, like all solid bodies, may conduct sonny 
tions of the air.” Here, evidently, Siebold had not in his n oe 
physical relations which exist between two bodies Meas. that 

xactly the same number of vibrations ; for it is well kno tion by 
when one of them vibrates, the other Will be set into vibratiot 


by 
j Š bi ompanied 

* Indeed, they are often highly developed in themselves wilt ae a range 
palpi, which are properly placed, adequately organized and endo 

moti. eS ea S porns Jad F i. 


g purposes of touc 


AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO, 583 


the impacts sent to it through the intervening air. Thus, if the 
fibrill on the antennx of an insect should be tuned to the differ- 
ent notes of the sound emitted by the same insect, then when these 
sounds fell upon the antennal fibrils, the latter would enter into 
vibration with those notes of the sound to which they were sever- 
ally tuned ; and so it is evident that not only could a properly 
constructed antenna serve as a receptor of sound, but it would also 
have a function not possible in a membrane ; that is, it would have 
the power of analyzing a composite sound by the co-vibration of 
its various fibrilla to the elementary tones of the sound. 

The fact that the existence of such an antenna is not only sup- 
posable but even highly probable, taken in connection with an 
observation I have often made in looking over entomological col- 
lections ; viz: that fibrille on the antennz of noctural insects are 
highly developed, while on the antenne of diurnal insects they are 
either entirely absent or reduced to mere rudimentary filaments, 
caused me to entertain the hope that I should be able to confirm 
my surmises by actual experiments on the effects of sonorous vi- 
brations on the antennal fibrilla ; also, the well known experiments 
of Hensen,* and the inferences of Dr. Johnston from anatomical 
Studies of the antenne of the Culex, encouraged me to seek in 
aerial insects for phenomena similar to those Hensen had found in 
the decapod, the Mysis, and thus to discover in nature an appa- 
ratus whose functions are the counterpart of those of the apparatus 
with which I gave the experimental confirmation of Fourier’s the- 
Orem, and similar to the supposed functions of the rods of the 
organ of Corti. 

The beantiful structure of the plumose antenne of the male 
Culex is well known to all microscopists ; and these organs at once 

to me as suitable objects on which to begin my experi- 
ments. The antennæ of these insects are twelve-jointed and from 
each joint radiates a whorl of fibrils, and the latter gradually de- 
Crease in their lengths as we proceed from those of the second joint 
from the base of the antenna to those of the second joint from the 
tip. These fibrils are highly elastic and so slender that their 
ngtas are over three hundred times their diameters. They taper 
Slightly, so that their diameter at the base is to the diameter near 
3 to 2. 


a * Studios an +, ed k: s V ds. “Journal of Scientific Zöology” 
Siebold and Kölliker, Vol. xiii. 


584 AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO. 


I cemented a live male mosquito With shellac to a glass slide 
and brought to bear on various fibrils a th objective. I then 
sounded successively, near the stage of the microscope, a series of 
tuning-forks with the openings of their resonant boxes turned 
toward the fibrils. On my first trials with an Ut, fork, of 512 ¥. 
per sec., I was delighted with the results of the experiments, for! 
saw certain of the fibrils enter into vigorous vibration, while others 
remained comparatively at rest. 

he table of experiments which I have given is ch 
of all of the many series which I have made. In the first colu 
(A) I have given the notes of the forks in the French notation, 
which König stamps upon his forks. In the second (B) are the 
amplitudes of the vibrations of the end of the fibril in divisions 
of the micrometer scale; and in column (C) are the values 
these divisions in fractions of a millimetre. 


4° 


A. B. 3; 
Ut, ‘5 div 0042 mm 
Ut, 2:5 0200 
Mi, 1:75 ‘0147 
Sol, 2-0 -0168 
Ut, 6-0 0504 
Sol, 1:5 0126 
Bè- 1-5 0126 
Ut; 2-0 0168 


fork on the fibril 
pserved ampli- 
in the inten- 
put vibrated 


The superior effect of the vibrations of the Ut, 
is marked, but thinking that the differences in the 0 
tudes of the vibrations might be owing to differences 
sities of the various sounds, I repeated the experiment, 
with lower intensities the forks which gave the greater 
equality of amplitude, yet the fibre gave the a 
was tuned to unison with Ut, or to some other note vie 
tone of it. The differences of amplitude given by he inter- 
and Mi, are considerable, and the table also brings out the 1 
esting observation that the lower (Ut;) and the higher prt 
monics of Ut, cause greater amplitudes of vibration th pie 
intermediate notes. As long as a universal method for pe itch 
mination of the relative intensities of sounds of ai P 
remains undiscovered, so long will the science of acoustics 


AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO. 585 


in its present vague qualitative condition.* Now, not having the 
means of equalizing the intensities of the vibrations issuing from 
the various resonant boxes, I adopted the plan of sounding, with 
a bow, each fork with the greatest intensity I could obtain. I 
think that it is to be regretted that Kénig did not adhere to the 
form of fork, with inclined prongs, as formerly made by Marloye ; 
for with such forks one can always reproduce the same initial in- 
tensity of vibration by separating the prongs by means of the 
same cylindrical rod which is drawn between them. Experiments 
similar to those already given revealed a fibril tuned to such per- 
fect unison with Ut, that it vibrated through 18 divisions of the 
micrometer or -15mm., while its amplitude of vibration was only 
3 div. when Ut, was sounded. Other fibrils responded to other 
notes, so that I infer from my experiments on about a dozen mos- 
quitoes that their fibrils are tuned to sounds extending through the 
middle and next higher octave of the piano 

To subject to a severe test the supposition I now entertained, 
that the fibrils were tuned to various periods of vibration, I meas- 
ured with great care the lengths and diameters of two fibrils, one 
of which vibrated strongly to Uts, the other as powerfully to Ut,; 
and from these measures I constructed in homogeneous pine wood 
two gigantic models of the fibrils; the one corresponding to the 
Ut, fibril being about one metre long. After a little practice I 
Sueceeded in counting readily the number of vibrations they gave 
When they were clamped at one end and drawn from a horizontal 
Position. On obtaining the ratio of these numbers I found that 


E I have recently made some experiments in this direction, which show the possi- 
ty of « eventually being able to express the intensity of an aerial vibration directly 
fraction of Joule’s Dynamical Unit, by measuring the heat developed in a slip of 

a 


can be devised b i i fork can always 
y Which the aerial vibration produced by this fo 
Produced with the same intensity. This anas expressed in fraction of Joule’s unit, 
— afterwar: TOOS 


s0 The operation can be performed on on other forks of different pite 
a series of Sru ka of different periods of vibration is obtained expres ma 
< ding series of fractions of Joule’s unit. Recent ents _— given 
lent oft hundred thousandth of a Joule’s unit as the approximate dynamic equiva- 
term tet seconds of aerial vibrations produced by an Uts fork, set in motion by in- 
nlar: 


ced before a 


i 


586 AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO. 


it coincided with the ratio existing between the numbers of vibra- 
tions of the forks to which co-vibrated the fibrils of which these 
pine rods were models. 

The consideration of the relations which these slender, tapering, 
and pointed fibrils must have to the aerial pulses acting on them, 
led me to discoveries in the physiology of audition which I imagine 
are entirely new. If a sonorous wave falls upon one of these 
fibrils so that its wave-front is at right angles to the fibril, and 
hence the direction of the pulses in the wave are in the direction 
of the fibril’s length, the latter cannot be set in vibration; butif 
the vibrations in the wave are brought more and more to beat 
athwart the fibril it will vibrate with amplitudes increasing until it 
reaches its maximum swing of co-vibration, when the wave-front 
is parallel to its length and therefore the direction of the imp | 
on the wave are at right angles to the fibril. These curious su" 
mises I have confirmed by many experiments made in the following 
manner. A fork which causes a strong co-vibration in a certaim 
fibril is brought near the microscope, so that the axis of the Tes? 
nant box is perpendicular to the fibril and its opening is toward 
the microscope. The fibril, in these circumstances, enters on 
vigorous vibration on sounding the fork ; but, on moving the bes 
around the stáge of the microscope so that the axis of the = 
always points toward the fibril, the amplitudes of vibration of a 
fibril gradually diminish, and when the axis of the box come 
with the length of the fibril, and therefore the sonorous pulses telf 
on the fibril in the direction of its length, the fibril is absolute ¥ 
sition, 18 
brought quite close to the microscope. These observatio. 
revealed to me a new function of these organs; which 
moment, we assume that the antennæ are really the organ’ ile, 
receive aerial vibrations and transmit them to an auditory wa q 


of the perception of the direction sound more hig ; 

in any other class of animals. The following eSP% ise 
will show the force of this statement and at the same bare” n of d 
trate the manner in which these insects determine the oih : 
a sonorous centre. I placed under the microscope 4 ae eo to the 4 
and kept my attention fixed upon a fibril which co-vibrai® om 
sound of a tuning-fork, which an assistant placed in Y of the a 
positions around the microscope. I then rotated the stag®? l 


; 
j 

i 
` 


AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO. 587 


instrument until the fibril ceased to vibrate, and then drew a line 
on a piece of paper, under the microscope, in the direction of the 
fibril. On extending this line, I found that it always cut within 5° 
of the position of the source of the sound. The antennæ of the 
male mosquito have a range of motion in a horizontal direction, so 
that the angle included between them can vary considerably inside 
and outside of 40°,* and I conceive that this is the manner in 
which these insects during night direct their flight toward the 
female. * The song of the female vibrates the fibrillæ of one of the 
antenne more forcibly than those of the other. The insect spreads 
the angle between his antennz, and thus, as I have observed, 
brings the fibrillæ, situate within the angle formed by the antenne, 
in a direction approximately parallel to the axis of the body. The 
mosquito now turns his body in the direction of that antenna 
Whose fibrils are most affected, and thus gives greater intensity to 
the vibrations of the fibrils of the other antenna. When he has 
thus brought the vibrations of the antenne to equality of inten- 
sity, he has placed his body in the direction of the radiation of 
the sound, and he directs his flight accordingly ; and from my ex- 
periments it would appear that he can thus guide himself to within 
5? of the direction of the female. 


components, as is done by the higher vertebrates ; but I do not 
hold this view, but believe that the range of co-vibration of the 
fibrils of the mosquito is to enable it to apprehend the varying 
Pitch of the sounds of the female. In other words, the want of 
poin ite and fixed pitch to the female’s song demands for the re- 
ceiving apparatus of her sounds a corresponding range of co-vi- 
bration, so that instead of indicating a high order of auditory 
development it is really the lowest, except in its power of deter- 
mining the direction of a sonorous centre, in which respect it sur- 
Passes by far our own ear.} 
E Aeneas r ane T ES 


_ °The shafts of the ant i ut 40°. The basal fibrils of the 
Chee i ? antenna include an angle of abo A ale of about 30°, with 
the axis of the insect ; 


e insect, 
[seme Physiologists, attempting to explain the function of th i age 
» because these canals are in three planes at right angles to each other, that 
hey serve to fix in space a so just as th metrician by his three coör- 


dinate Planes determines the position of a point in space. But this assumption is fan- 


588 AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO. 


The auditory apparatus we have just described does not in the 
least confirm Helmholtz’s hypothesis of the functions of the organ 
of Corti; for the supposed power of that organ to decompose 480 
norous sensation depends upon the existence of an auditory nerve 
differentiated as highly as the co-vibrating apparatus, and in the 
case of the mosquito there is no known anatomical basis for sud 
an opinion. In other words, my researches show external €o- 
vibrating organs whose functions replace those of the tympanic 
membrane and chain of ossicles in receiving and transmitting 
vibrations; while Helmholtz’s discoveries point to the existence 
of internal co-vibrating organs which have no analogy to those of 
the mosquito, because the functions of the former are not to receive 
and transmit vibrations to the sensory apparatus of the ear, but 
to give the sensation of pitch and to decompose a composite 8 
norous sensation into its elements; and this they can only do by 
their connection with a nervous development whose parts are as 
numerous as those of the co-vibrating mechanism. Now as such 
a nervous organization does not exist in insects, it follows that 
neither anatomical nor functional relations exist between the co- 
vibrating fibrils on the antennz and the co-vibrating rods in the 
organ of Corti, and therefore, that neither Hensen’s experiments 
on the Mysis (assumed by Helmholtz to confirm his hypothesis), 
nor mine on the mosquito, can be adduced in support of Helmholtz’: 
hypothesis of audition.* 

The above described experiments were made 
think that I am authorized to hold the opinion that 
lished a physical connection existing between the sounds emi 
by the female and the co-vibrations of the antennal fibrillæ iation 
male mosquito; but only a well established physiological 7° . 


with care, and I 
I have estab: 


ciful and entirely devoid of reason; for the semicircular canals are fx geat 
ynamic relation to the ted ani c me embrane, aa receives the vibration i 
the inner ear. Really, we duced in 
the direction of a manā w the e difference in ie intensities of the anes enr and by te 
the two ears, and this determination is aided by the form of the pee en ve ; 
that man can turn his head around a vertical axis. Other he see 
have the power of facilitating the determination of motion by moving a 
outer ears ang rege n It is also a fact that when one depte 
that t sciou "e o affected always supposes 4 § sound to 
tide on which is his goo de s, it is not 
he organ of Corti having disappeared in the lower oe 
iikely that it would reappear in the articulata; and paii Corti is the PPF 
when we gme that the peculiar function of the organ constantly 
of tie als are 


ciation 
called upon to 


omposite sounds, whose signification mam 


AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO. 589 


between these co-vibrating parts of the animal and the develop- 
ment of its nervous system will authorize us to state that these 
are really the auditory organs of the insect. At this stage of the 
investigation I began a search through the zoological journals, and 
found nearly all that I could desire in a paper, in vol. iii, 1855, of 
the Quarterly Journal of the Microscopical Society, entitled ** Au- 
ditory apparatus of the Culex Mosquito, by Christopher Johnston, 
M. D., Baltimore, U. 8.” 

In this excellent paper I found clear statements showing that 
its talented author had surmised the existence of some of the 
physical facts which my experiments and observations have es- 
tablished.* To show that anatomical facts conform to the hy- 
pothesis that the antennal fibrils are the auditory organs of the 
mosquito, I cannot do better than quote the following from Dr. 
Johnston’s paper : 

“While bearing in mind the difference between feeling a noise 
and perceiving a vibration, we may safely assume with Carus—for 
a great number of insects, at least,—that whenever true auditory 
organs are developed in them, their seat is- to be found in the 
neighborhood of the antenne. That these parts themselves are, 
in some instances, concerned in collecting and transmitting 80- 
horous vibrations, we hold as established by the observations we 
have made, particularly upon the Culex mosquito ; while we believe, 
as Newport has asserted in general terms, that they serve also as 
tactile organs, 

“The male mosquito differs considerably, as is well known, from 
the female ; his body being smaller and of a darker color, and his 
head furnished with antennee and palpi in a state of greater de- 
velopment. (Fig. 92.) Notwithstanding the fitness of his organs 
or predatory purposes, he is timid, seldom entering dwellings or 
anoying man, but restricts himself to damp and foul places, es- 
pecially sinks and privies. The female, on the other hand, gives 
steater extension to her flight, and attacking our race, is the 
Occasion of no inconsiderable disturbance and vexation during 
the summer and autumn months. . 

“The head of the male mosquito, about 0-67 mm. wide, is pro- 
LEE ES Re aR malo tae aaa 


*A short time before the d i Agassiz, h 
: eath of my friend, Prof. 3 
Words: “T can hardly express my delight at ing your letter. I pn ar aS 
“Pon one of the most fertile mines for the elucidation of a problem which to this day 
is a puzzle to ing in Articulates.” 


ts, the seat of the organ of hearing in 


590 AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO. 


vided with lunate eyes, between which in front superiorly are 
found two pyriform capsules nearly touching each other, and 
having implanted into them the very remarkable antenne. 

“ The capsule, measuring about 0°21 mm., is composed of a horny 
substance, and is attached posteriorly by its pedicle, while anteriorly 
it rests upon a horny: ring, united with its fellow by a transverse 
fenestrated band, and to which it is joined by a thin elastic mem- 
brane. Externally it has a rounded form, but internally it resembles 
a certain sort of lamp shade with a constriction near its middle ; 


Auditory Apparatus Of the Mosquito. 


and between this inner cup and outer globe there exists a space 
except at the bottom or proximal end, where botl 

“The antenne are of nearly equal length in th 
female. 

“In the male, the antenne is about 1°75 mm. in 
consists of fourteen joints, twelve short ‘and nearly equ ther) 
two long and equal terminal ones, the latter measuring Spt 
0-70mm. Each of the shorter joints has a fenestrated § jorly: 
with an external investment, and terminates simply poor ss 


} are united. 
e male and th 


p 


t 


length, and 
and 


l, 


AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO. 591 


but is encircled anteriorly with about forty papille, upon which 
are implanted long and stiff hairs, the proximal sets being about 
0:79 mm. and the distal ones 0-70 mm. in length; and it is beset 
with minute bristles in front of each whorl. 

“The two last joints have each a whorl of about twenty short 
hairs near the base. 

“In the female the joints are nearly equal, number but thirteen, 
and have each a whorl of about a dozen small hairs around the 

- Here, as well as in the male, the parts of the antenne 
enjoy a limited motion upon each other, except the basal joint, 
which, being fixed, moves with the capsule upon which it is im- 
planted. 

“The space between the inner and outer walls of the capsule, 
which we term confidently the auditory capsule,* is filled with a 
fluid of moderate consistency, opalescent and containing minute 
spherical corpuscles, and which probably bears the same relation 
to the nerve as does the lymph in the scale of the cochlea of 
higher animals. The nerve itself, of the antenna, proceeds from 
the first or cerebral ganglion, advances toward the pedicle of the 
capsule in company with the large trachea, which sends its rami- 
fications throughout the entire apparatus, and, penetrating the 
Pedicle, its filaments divide into two portions. The central threads 
continue forward into the antenna, and are lost there; the periph- 
eral ones, on the contrary, radiate outward in every direction, 
enter the capsular space, and are lodged there for more than half 
their length in sulci wrought in the inner wall or cup of the capsule. 

“In the female the disposition of parts is observed to be nearly 
the Same, excepting that the capsule is smaller, and that the last 
distal antennal joint is rudimental. 

: “The proboscis does not differ materially in the two sexes; but 
the palpi, although consisting in both instances of the same 
number of pieces, are very unlike. In the female they are ex- 
tremely short, but in the male attain the length of 2°73 mm. ; 
while the proboscis measures but 216mm. They are curved up- 
‘Ward at the extremity. 

t PPSS The positiop of the capsules strikes us as extremely 
“vorable for the performance of the function which we assign to 
i besides which there present themselves in the same light 


*See fig 92. 


592 AUDITORY APPARATUS OF THE MOSQUITO. 


the anatomical arrangement of the capsules, the disposition and 
lodgment of the nerves, the fitness of the expanded whorls for 
receiving, and of the jointed antennz fixed by the immovable 
basal joint for transmitting, vibrations created by the sonorous 
undulations. The intra-capsular fluid is impressed by the shock, 
the expanded nerve appreciates the effect of the sound, by the 
quantity of the impression; of the pitch, or quality by the con- 
sonance of particular whorls of stiff hairs, according to their 
lengths; and of the direction in which the undulations travel, by 
the manner in which they strike upon the antenna, or may 
made to meet either antenne in consequence of an opposite move 
ment of that part. 

‘ That the male should be endowed with superior acuteness of 
the sense of hearing appears from the fact, that he must seek the 
female for sexual union either in the dim twilight or in the dark 
night, when nothing but her sharp humming noise can serve him 
as a guide. The necessity for an equal perfection of hearing does 
not exist in the female; and, accordingly, we find that the organs 
of the one attain a development which the others never reach. 
In these views we believe ourselves to be borne out by direct © 
periment, in connection with which we may allude to the greater 
difficulty of catching the male mosquito. 

“ In the course of our observations we have arrived at the coh 
elusion, that the antenn serve to a considerable extent as ier 
of touch in the female; for the palpi are extremely short, W», 
the antennz are very movable, and nearly equal the 
‘ rfect develop- 
in length. In the male, however, the length and pe da 
ment of the palpi would lead us to look for the seat of hem 
sense elsewhere, and, in fact, we find the two apical am pairs; 
joints to be long, movable, and comparatively free from more 
and the relative motion of the remaining joints very much 
limited.” 

My experiments on the mosquito began late in the fall, and 
therefore I was not able to extend them to other ime Le 
spring I purpose to resume the research, and will a” a 
pecially on those orthoptera and hemiptera which volunta y = 
distinct and characteristic sounds. 


i 


THE GOSSAMER SPIDER.* 


BY DR. G. LINCECUM. 


DECEMBER is, in Texas, the month for ballooning spiders to 
emigrate. Webster says, “ gossamer, a fine, filmy substance 
like cobwebs floating in the air, in calm, clear weather, espec- 
ially in autumn, and is probably formed by a species of spider.” 
Pretty good for a dictionary maker. But he didn’t know how it 
happened to be floating in the air. 

Sure enough, that fine, filmy substance is formed by a little 
spider. I have seen them making it. It is a balloon, and if 
Webster had caught one of those floating locks of gossamer 
before it reached a landing place, he would have found the little 
aeronaut and half a dozen young ones aboard of it. The bal- 
loon is the plan adopted by that particular species of Arachnid, 
to scatter widecast its young ones. 

This species of spider constructs nets and snares, and, like 
many other species of the family, its net is circular, very regularly 
and systematically constructed, and thoughtfully placed in an open 
passage way, seven or eight feet from the ground between two 
bushy trees, and above the contingency of being broken by a 
roaming cow or loose horse. 

In setting and establishing the two first brace lines between 
the two trees it has selected for its net, it displays much sagacity 
and ingenuity, with a thorough knowledge of the powers of the 
wind, and the best possible method and position to avail itself of 
its uses. Climbing up the tree situated to the windward, it takes 
Position, at the proper elevation on the point of the longest twig 
ìt can find that projects towards the other tree of its selection ; 
ape Spinning one of its gossamer webs of the proper length, 
Patiently waits for a breath of air to waft it across the vacant 
“peo of ten to twenty feet and lash its viscid extremity to some 
Projecting twig or leaf of the opposite tree. It holds the line in 
its hand, feels when it strikes, and instantly making the home end 

» Strikes out boldly on the microscopic thread, lets go another 

as she travels, and is soon observed lashing down the ends 

oan ri author to the Smithsonian Institution and published by per- 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 38 (593) 


594 THE GOSSAMER SPIDER. 


of the now double line, to a twig of the other tree. This done, it 
runs back and forth on it, spinning a thread every trip until the 
line is ten or fifteen ply. 

It now places itself on another twig of the windward tree, a 
nearly under the first line as possible and six or eight feet below, 
lets go another thread. As soon as it feels it has caught on the 
opposite tree it fastens down the home end, and hastens to reenact 
all we saw it perform on the first line. It seems to be much elated 
and encouraged by its successes, and, now hurriedly, is seen climb- 
ing up the first tree, and very soon is engaged at work as near the 
middle of the upper line, as could have been obtained by actual 
measurement. Soon it is observed’ descending spinning out a 
thread as it goes, it being safely fastened to the upper line ” 
swings down until it is somewhat below the lower line; but 
finds that the thread it hangs on, is half a yard or more to on 
side of its lower line. It now, after a moment’s reflection, at 
tempts to swing, pendulum-like, at the end of its thread to al 
from the lower line. The spider soon ascertained that success did 
not lie in that experiment; and wound up the thread it was hang- 
ing on until it regained its position on the middle of the ~*~ 
line. It was very nearly calm, and it rapidly spun out 4 long 
thread, which, light as was the breeze, passed above peg 
brace line. It was however continuously extended until it i sie 
amongst the brush some distance away. The ingemlous of it 
workman continued to spin out the thread, until the slack i 
bending down came in contact and adhered to the lower is 
Feeling the entanglement, it immediately ran down, ont and se 
loose the surplus end of the thread, carried the end in a 
the line aboves 
wer brace, 3t- 
thence along 


it fast. Then passing on the upper brace to 4 point 
beyond the middle dropped line, made a thread fast wee” right 
d ed the middle line, carrying the thread to 4 pee? d 
angles with its attachment above, and giving it the prop% ieh og 
made it fast. And now, laying three or four threads 0n 
these three stay lines, the balance of the work, though 1" 
was easily accomplished. 


THE GOSSAMER SPIDER. 595 


After laying the radiating lines, it goes down to the centre, 
and carefully measuring with its right hind leg, seizes with its 
foot one of the lines, and drawing it down forcibly, until it touches 
the web vent; it adheres and is instantly let go. In its recoil, 
there is seen to be drawn out a milk like substance; this lessens 
into a very fine web which instantly dries. It then moves onwards 
to the next line and with the same hind foot seizes it at the 
proper measurement, draws it down as before until it touches 
the web fount, lets it recoil and spin out the gossamer web; and 
so on, from line to line, measuring the meshes exactly the same 
distance moving to the left; the circular line is put on spirally. 

The gossamer spider will weigh near two grains; it is well 
formed, of a grayish pea green, the legs rather long. Quick in its 
movements, but a little timid ; it will drop its work and run on the 
approach of a stranger. One species of mud dauber destroys mul- 
titudes of the gossamer spiders. 

When, in the last days of November there comes a clear day, 
temperature 60° Fah. wind gently from the south; at about one 
o'clock, P. m., and afterwards during the succeeding three hours, 
may be seen, in this latitude at various heights and distance, very 
many white locks of gossamer floating smoothly in the air, all 
going with the wind. These are the balloons of the gossamer 
spider. And there is a mother and half a dozen or more young 
spiders aboard of every one of them. 

Each balloon is furnished with two long lines at the forward end, 
which may be seen, waving and flapping in the wind as they fly, 
and seeming to aid in preserving the equable position of the light 
floating craft. 

Towards four o’clock, pP. m., the spectator will observe that the 
balloons are beginning to descend; and at the same time he will 
see great numbers of long glittering webs, detached and floating 
at random all rising higher as they go on with the wind. 

Meanwhile the balloons with their freight are whirling, not very 
rapidly downwards, until they strike some tall weed or grass, 
when they become entangled, and the passengers instantly leap 
out, and spinning out a web swing themselves down to the ground. 

If the observer is near enough when the balloon strikes he can 
See all this. 

Thave noticed these balloons, when the wind was brisk passing 
Very rapidly, at an altitude of one or two thousand feet. There 


596 ON THE NESTING OF CERTAIN HAWES, ETC. 


is no telling where they came from or how far they might float 
150, or 200 miles perhaps. Thus is scattered the species over 
vast districts, which, no doubt, is the object of their aeronautic 
journey. : 

When they intend to make an ascension, they fix themselves on 
some extreme point of the branch of a tree, or weed or corm tassel; 
there carefully spin out a lock of white gossamer five or six inches 
long and two inches wide in the middle, tapering towards the ends; 
holding it all the time in the gentle breeze by a thread two or three 
inches long, which, being attached to the end of the selected 
point, detains the balloon until it is finished. They then spin out 
at the bow two lines thirty or forty feet in length, another at the 
stern twenty or thirty feet long, then cut the cable and float briskly 
upwards and forwards on an inclined plane. 

I once observed one of these spiders at work on the upper corner 
of an open, outside door shutter. She was spinning gossamer, 
which, she was forming a balloon; and clinging to her thorax was 
a little cluster of minute, young spiders. She finished up the body 
of the balloon; threw out the long bow lines, which were flappiné 
` and fluttering on the now gently increasing breeze, several minutes 
before she got all ready for the ascension. She seemed pe 
fixing the bottom and widening her hammock-shaped balloon. “"" 
now the breeze being suitable, she moved to the cable in the stern, 
severed it, and her craft bounded upwards and soaring wee 
northwards, was soon beyond the scope of my observation. isi 
was standing near when it was preparing to cast loose the cab wh 
and had thought I would arrest its flight but it bounded away" 
such a sudden hop, that I missed and it was gone. 


ON THE NESTING OF CERTAIN HAWKS, ETO- 


BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES, U. 8. A+ 


Is a recent number of the Narurauisr I gave some a¢ "bot ba e 
the nidification of Swainson’s buzzard (Buteo Swainsoni),? iste 
nothing to say of the eggs, as I took the field last me aod 
for them. The present year I have secured numerous a 


X 

a 

af 

‘ 
oe 
i 


ON THE NESTING OF CERTAIN HAWKS, ETC. 597 


noticed an interesting variation from the usual mode of nesting, 
necessarily brought about by the entire absence of trees. In 
Montana, as in most of Dakota, Swainson’s buzzard occurs in 
great numbers over large areas of almost unbroken, arid and cac- 
tus-ridden prairie, where, even along the water-courses, there may 
be no trees or bushes for many miles. Several of the northern 
tributaries of the Milk river, which we have crossed this season, 
are entirely unwooded ; the streams cut their sinuous course deep 
into the loose soil of the prairie, making on the convexity of 
almost every turn a bold perpendicular earth-bank a hundred feet, 
more or less, in height. To these ‘‘cut-banks” as they are called, 
Swainson’s and some other hawks, to be presently mentioned, re- 
sort to breed. The nest is composed of small sticks—the stems 
of sage brush and other rank weeds—with grasses, etc., and is of 
the usual size and shape; it rests directly on the earth of some 
little projecting shelf of ground, generally near the top of the 
embankment. The eggs of this bird I have taken, fresh and in 
various stages of incubation, from the latter part of June till the 
middle of July. No one of the numerous sets contained more 
than two eggs; this is obviously the usual complement, in this lat- 
ttude at least, though presumably not the maximum. In one in- 
stance, I found but a single egg in the nest, so far advanced in 
incubation that I was satisfied no other would have been laid. 
These eggs differ, furthermore, from what I believe to be the rule 
in this genus, in being nearly colorless and unmarked. They are 
quite like hens’ eggs in general appearance, as well as in size and 
shape. Most of my specimens are uniform dull white, with no 
more evident markings than such obsolete grayish spots as are 
frequently observed in the eggs of the marsh hawk (Cireus cya- 
neus Hudsonicus) ; a few have some obvious dirty-brown scratchy 
spots, in every instance at the small end; none are marked all 
Over, nor are any of them strongly blotched at all. It would have 
been impossible to predicate the normal character of these eggs 
Spon any rule which might be supposed to hold in this genus. 
Plain Colorless eggs, the well-known exceptions in the cases of 
Many or most species of Buteo, are here the rule. 

) It may not be generally known that the ferrugineous buzzard 
(Archibuteo ferrugineus) which is accredited, and properly so, with 
a decidedly western range, is a common species of eastern Montana 
and the adjoining portions of Dakota, in latitude 49°. I have 


598 ON THE NESTING OF CERTAIN HAWKS, ETC. 


frequently seen it this summer along the northern tributaries of 
Milk river, where I have secured some fine specimens of old at 
young, and observed its nidification. This is precisely the sam 
as that of Buteo Swainsoni, the nest which I found being placed 
on a little projection on the face of an earth bluff. It contained 
three young, about ready to take flight, July 18th. ue 
I was still more surprised to find yet a third species of hawk 
nesting in the same unusual manner. This was the peregrine : 
falcon or duck hawk (Falco communis), a bird whose nidification 
under varying circumstances, has occasioned some little con 
troversy, and entered into the discussion of the relationship of 
the American to the European form. I was much gratified hes 
cover the nest, which very few ornithologists have seem m 
country, and to note how readily the bird adapted itself to 
special surroundings. In this region the falcon may be bee. 
said to nest on the ground; yet we must remember that itis merely 
the replacing by an earthen embankment of the rocky crags W 7 
the bird is described as usually nesting. In effect the location $ 
the same. One of the two nests I found was almost within ie 


$ 


pS 


zard were respectively nesting. It was almost a burrow 12 
ground, so completely was it hidden on a little sh 
neath a projecting mass, and further concealed by à tall coma 
earth nearly washed away from the face of the bank. eos: 
contained three young ones, just able to fly. On lowering © 
down by a rope over the brow of the bank, they ne 

and circled about till two were shot ; one parent had agi? 
destroyed; the other was not seen. The third young one 


below the top. It likewise contained three young 
yet able to leave the nest. Both parents hovered Over 
loud harsh cries; the male kept at a respectful distant el 
her home, 
me at close range, till, at one of her swoops, I brought 
ground. I endeavored without success to lasso 
out of the nest; they repeatedly cleared themselves % 
just as it began to draw upon them; and as the crum 


ON THE NESTING OF CERTAIN HAWKS, ETC. 599 


the bank rendered descent to the nest too dangerous to be tried, I 
left the family to the care of the father, who, it is to be hoped, 
has since done more for his family than he did on the occasion just 
mentioned. 

The character of the embankments on which all these hawks 
nested may be perfectly indicated in the fact that they were also the 
resort of myriads of cliff swallows (Hirundo lunifrons). Thou- 
sands of the swallows’ nests patched the face of the banks in vari- 
ous places; one large cluster was noticed near a buzzard’s nest ; 
while another group was aflixed within a few feet of one of the 
falcon’s nests. I was not long enough on the spot to determine 
whether the swallows were fond of their bold and powerful neigh- 
bors or not. 

In speaking of this unusual association of swallows and falcons, 
I am reminded to note a somewhat similar arrangement between & 
pair of Arkansas flycatchers, and Swainson’s buzzard; their nests 
being in the same tree and but a few feet apart. Both birds were 
incubating at the time of my visit. 

The Arkansas flycatcher (Tyrannus verticalis), is one of the 
commonest of the small birds along the Upper Missouri and the 
Wooded parts of the Milk river and its tributaries. So far as I 
have observed, however, it will not go into an entirely treeless 
country. In travelling over the prairie, no sooner do we strike a 
“coulé” (ravine) with scattered cottonwoods and box-elders, than 
we hear the shrill cries of these birds; and the nest—or several 
of them— may usually be soon discovered, the nest being bulky, 
and the trees straggling, with thin foliage. These birds lay later 
than most species in this country. I have taken fresh eggs up to 
the middle of July, and am sure there was no previous brood. 

nests are in a fork or crotch, generally far out on the limb, 
but sometimes directly against the trunk ; and at any height from 
five or six to forty or fifty feet. The common kingbird is gener- 
ally Seen in company with this species; I have taken both nests 
from the same tree. The eggs of the two are indistinguishable ; 
nor can the nests be told apart with certainty ; though on an aver- 
age the Arkansas is the larger, softer and fluffier, with more weedy 
and downy material and fewer slender rootlets; it is also rather 
ea compactly built. The eggs run from three to six in number. 
With the same general habits, these two flycatchers may instantly 
ba recognized by the voice; that of the Arkansas is much harsher 


600 ON THE NESTING OF CERTAIN HAWKS, ETC. 


and louder than that of the common kingbird, which more neatly 
resembles the twittering of a martin. The difference is very 
noticeable when the two species are hovering together overhead, 
bewailing the spoliation of their homes. 

Our common kingbird may be added to the long list of the cow- 
bird’s victims, and to the shorter catalogue of those ingenious birds 
who get rid of the obnoxious egg by building a two-story nest 
I have such a one in my collection, with a cowbird’s egg safely 
shut up in the basement. 

Nothing that I am aware of has been entered upon the records 


respecting the nidification of the mountain plover (Zudromias moi- — 


tana). I find it breeding quite commonly in all the region immedi- 
ately north of the Milk river, and extending at least as far east S 
the mouth of this river. It nests on the open prairie, in June and 
July. There is nothing peculiar in the nidification; the nest 8 
merely a slight depression, lined with a few grass blades. The 
only set of eggs I have contains three; and as I have several 
times noticed the parent leading her brood of three young over 
the prairie, I conclude that this number, and not four, is the us 
complement, in this latitude at least. The eggs are as descr! u 
in my late work ; they are rather peculiar, and little liable to % 
confounded with those of any of the allied waders. When starth 
from the nest the bird makes off crouching low, running $ 
with frequent pauses, and uttering meanwhile a low chattering 
note, quite unlike the ordinary soft mellow cry- 
the bird nests anywhere on the dry prairie; but sba 
preference, it is for the stretches of low loose grassy ground 4 aaa 
the prairie dogs settle, as distinguished from the more ore me 
gravelly or stony prairie. The period of nesting must that 
tracted ; for I have taken nearly fresh eggs at the same timè ©" 
I saw broods running about, and but a few days be 
ered young, no longer under charge of the parent Y 
The numberless alkaline pools or small lakes wi 
tions of Dakota and Montana are cursed are the nn and 
resorts of two very elegant and interesting birds; the V1, 


if it have y 


were obtain 


Wilson’s phalarope. These two species are always 1Y iper, 
associated in my mind, so frequently have I found them "e t 


arts of thew” 
it at any 


not only in this region, but in Kansas and other p 
The avocet is one of the most conspicuous bird 
regions of our Territories. In flight we recognize 


iftly but 


As I have said, 


fore well feath- 


th which pot ‘ 


od ES TU yee eng srg ce 


die 


4 
ae 
4 
: 
. 

; 

: 
i 


ON THE NESTING OF CERTAIN HAWKS, ETC. 601 


tance by its resemblance to a miniature crane; its body white, and 
wings black, its long blue legs stretched stiffly straight behind, and 
the measured sweep of its ample wings, unlike the quicker beats of 
the thin, pointed pinions of its allies. Its voice is also character- 
istic; the harsh noise is incessant when the breeding places are 
invaded. This bird must nest quite early; as I found no eggs, 
and by the middle of July well grown and completely feathered 
young birds were flocking. These may be distinguished from the 
adults among other marks, by the curiously swollen condition of 
the shank; the upper part of the tarsus being two or three times 
as thick as the tibia. It is much the same with the phalaropes 
and other waders. As regards the singular bill of the avocet, the 
amount of curvature of which has occasioned no little discussion, 
I may observe that I have shot some birds with the bill about as 
much curved as it is represented to be in Wilson’s figure, which 
has been severely criticised, and others with the bill as straight 
as Audubon drew it; nor was the difference, so far as I could see, 
anything more than fortuitous. The degree of swimming power 
the avocet possesses has also been variously estimated. The bird 
generally wades about after its food; but on striking a deep place 

gins to swim without the slightest hesitation; and moreover, I 
have seen it alight from on wing on deep water, and swim about 
as freely as a duck. In this respect, the avocet and the phalarope 
are about on a par. 

One of the most generally diffused of the birds that breed 
along the Upper Missouri and in the Milk river region is the 
long-billed curlew (Numenius longirostris). I have travelled for 
days together and scarcely lost sight of these birds for an hour, 
during the daytime ; while at night their piercing and lugubrious 
cries resounded to the howling of the wolves. There is something 
peculiarly melancholy, and almost foreboding, in their screams, 

in these remote wilds, where the traveller is never entirely 

free from a sense of contingent danger. The birds breed any- 
Where on the broad prairie—perhaps oftenest in the vicinity of 
Pools and sloughs, but not necessarily near water. The eggs are 
mostly laid in June, but there is a wide range in the time. Thus 
I have taken a set in July, having previously caught young birds. 
These, like other waders when young, have a curiously clumsy 
and gawky appearance when running over the prairie, as if their 
were too long and heavy to be easily managed. They may 


602 ON THE NESTING OF CERTAIN HAWKS, ETC. 


readily be caught during the first week or two. At this age the 
bill is about two inches long, comparatively stout throughout, and 
scarcely decurved. 

Among the smaller birds of the boundless prairie, a few species 
are specially notable. The commonest and most universally dif- 
fused is the western horned lark (Eremophila alpestris leucoleema) ; 
we find it breeding everywhere. It begins to lay very early; 
the curiously speckled young ones, quite unlike: the adults, may 
be taken any time in June, already flying; while eggs (doubtless 
of a second brood) may be secured through July. The mode 
of nesting of the larks, and of the three most conspicuous prairie 
fringillaries, is substantially the same. The three to which I 
are the bay-winged bunting (Pooecetes gramineus confinis), ha 
chestnut-collared bunting (Plectrophanes ornatus) and Maccown s 
bunting (P. Maccownii). These two Plectrophanes are the most 
characteristic of the prairie sparrows, and are found together m 
abundance in most of the regions here under consideration. P. 
ofnatus however, is rather the more easterly of the two. Thus, 
it is common all over northern Dakota and the eastern pat of 
Montana; while I have seen none since I came the first few miles 
up the Milk river, where P. Maccownii increases in numbers, es 
becomes the prevailing, and finally the only species. The pg 
collared has a very pretty habit of soaring, like Sprague $ | 
while the female is incubating, singing in the air, and letting ™ be 
gradually down like a parachute, with the wings stretched up™ 

at a right angle with each other—an action that displays E we 
_ black of the under parts and the white of the tail to the ee 
vantage. Floating thus lightly in the air they remind one 0f Y. 
terflies; and their song, though not of the highest exoellen 
sweet, gladsome and musical. the 

Great numbers of water-fowl stay their flight to nese be 
pools and sloughs of our Northern Boundary ; among thop ug Z p 
mentioned mallards, widgeons, shovellers, teals, pintails, g ick 
buffie-heads and wild geese. To resume the subject beet : 
this slight article began, namely, exceptional modes of n a 
would say that the geese of this region sometimes nest ee , 

see d then 2 
ground around the ponds, as geese ordinarily do, an jy that 
they sometimes nest in trees, somewhat like’ wood ducks, oy 
they do not enter holes for this purpose. Arboreal ni 


dification © 
i is a W Bo 
geese sounds strangely, but it is nevertheless true ; and n? : 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 603 


known circumstance to those persons who inhabit the country, 
however unenlightened ornithologists may be in the matter. It 
furnishes a case parallel with that related by Audubon, of the 
herring gull nesting in communities, in trees. 

I will conclude with an observation on the digestive arrange- 
ments of the sage cock—a bird which I have only lately seen 
alive. It has been repeatedly stated to feed exclusively upon 
sage leaves. All those I shot had the craw full of grasshoppers 
and other insects, and had nothing else in it. It has also been 
asserted that the bird has no gizzard; the gizzard is indeed quite 
thin, so as to appear merely a membranous bag, but for all I 
could see that the disposition of the muscles is the same as that 
obtaining in other gallinaceous birds. The case is simply a 
reduction of the amount of muscle, without any essential change 
in arrangement. At least this is the result of an off-hand dissec- 
tion, such as one would be likely to make in the field. The 
change is an evident adaptation to the soft and succulent or juicy 
nature of the bird’s food —buds, leaves and insects, instead of 
grain. There is another peculiarity of this bird, also dependent 
upon its food, and the nature.of the digestive process. When 
flushed it almost invariably acts in the way which has given the 
green heron (Ardea virescens) its inelegant popular appellation.— 
Milk River, at 49°, July 25, 1874. 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES.* I. 


BY DR. AUGUST WEISSMAN. 


: Berore I pass to the general results of the foregoing observa- 
tions a short chronological exhibit of all the processes of develop- 
ment will be useful. 

In agreement with all the earlier observations on the embry- 
ology of other insects it is apparent that during the life of the 
larva, in its outer form as well as the internal organs, only the 


LO MN ; ’s famous work, “ The Development of Diptera,” was published 

long ago as 1864, yet we feel sure our readers will value the translation of a few of 
i viously been rendered into English. The 

chapter is entitled “ View of the Phenomena of Development.”—A. 8. P- 


604 THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 


phenomena of growth are manifested, and not a deeper reaching 
metamorphosis. As the enlargement of an organ by simple growth 
in the Vertebrates is allied with a new formation of blood vessels, 
so here the origin of a new trachea is accompanied by the speedy 
enlargement of muscles and intestine, and with this very impor- 
tant continual increase of the net-work of tracheæ is combined a — 
expansion and increase in volume, so that after the first moulting, — 
on the anterior end of the body, a new pair of stigmata are formed, 
while the aperture in the hinder one is doubled, and after a m 
ond moulting, a three-fold aperture is made. Accompanying this 
is a certain change in the apparatus of hooks arming the mouth — 
of the larva. All these changes are not of great importance ; they : 
lead to no new feature in the organization of the animal; they aè — 
series of processes which precede the formation of entirely a | 
organs or parts. Transformation in this last sense occurs only in 
those parts of the larva, out of which the parts of the adult insects 
are developed. The genital glands, as well as the outer skin of the : 
- segments bearing the appendages of the fly’s body, are already formed 
in the larva ; indeed they are even formed during the development of 
the embryo. : 
We find ourselves in fact almost going back to the ed : 
theory of Swammerdam, who believed that the larva, pup and bur 7 
terfly were imprisoned from the very first in each other, and ere z 
Iti m 
only this, that the parts of the fly* do not all lie perfec 
within the larva, but exist only as rudiments, 
part of the body of the fly is newly formed, whil 
parts will be produced out of the larva. The hea 
with their appendages are formed within the larva by the 
development of special cell masses. The abdomen, 
arises through a simple change of a number of larval § pa 
The head and thorax arise not as a whole out of by ge : 
mass, but in separate pieces, out of which after pupation g eae 
form is perfected. oe 
The head arises out of two groups of cells which originate “o 
a nervous filament sent off from the supra-æsophageal g groups 
but each segment of the thorax arises out of four separa” 


_ of cells which are partly inserted in the course of @ j aht 
ment, and are in part blended with the peritoneal gkin of SY o 


* This chapter relates wholly to Musca vomitoria. 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 605 


These collections of cells form flat disk-like bodies which are 
enclosed in a structureless membrane and may be termed the im- 
aginal disks. In each imaginal disk of the thorax arises a quarter 
of a segment with the appendage belonging to it; the two imag- 
inal disks of the head, the appendages of the brain, unite them- 
selves into a hinder division, the eye-disks ; and an anterior which 
forms the germ of the antenne and remaining portion of the head. 

The pupation in Sarcophaga occurs eight or ten days after the 
exclusion of the larva from the egg. It is accompanied by a 
marked contraction of the whole body, with an infolding of the 
first segments. 

Under the hardened, barrel-shaped, larva skin [pupariam], the 
true pupa is formed, i. e., the body of the fly enclosed by a special 
membrane, the pupa-sheath. The process of formation of the 
body of the fly, while thus enclosed, lasts for four days after the 
pupation. Then it reaches that stage which in the development 
of the butterfly is shown by a stripping off of the larva skin, and 

Sormation of the pupa is ended; then begins the development 
of the same. This consists in the building up of the external 
form of the body, and in establishing the position and develop- 
ment of the internal organs. This period can be divided into 
two sections, which are here described chronologically. The first 
division consists of the more delicate modelling of the outer form. 
Hitherto the insect has appeared only in its crudest shape, the 
‘ppendages of the thorax and head are but rudimentary, neither 
attaining their full size, nor their definitive form. All these parts 
are now entirely formed, and are matured in from two to seven 
days, and already covered with colorless hairs and bristles. 

The second division covers the period of the eighth to the 
twentieth day, during which time the inner organs are completed, 

the outer surface of the body assumes its peculiar colors. 

The first period, that of the formation of the pupa, lasting from 
one to four days, begins with the destruction of the four anterior , 
segments of the larva. The hypodermis which gives it its form 
is loosened, the muscles of the body-walls, as also of the pharynx, 

e cellular walls of the pharynx itself, the anterior part of the 
“sophagus, with the sucking stomach, follow next. During this 
= le thoracic pieces are developed from the imaginal disks ; 
stg Sive origin to the appendages, which are indeed very short, 

Still each joint can be distinguished, and are nothing but a 


606 THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 


projection outwards of these same thoracic pieces. However 
here—as we had until now thought — the appendages of the imago 
do not result from a simple thrusting out of the larval hypodermis, 
as would seem to be correct in a morphological view, which would 
consider the appendages of the insectean body as projections of 
the skin, during their development not aborted, but persi 
They are in fact still, however, projections outwards of the skin, 
though they are formed at a time when the skin has not grown 
into closed segments. Still we find at the end of the second day 
the formative disks of the thorax appended to their pedicels 
(nerves, tracheze) in the form of swollen transparent vesicles, and 
within them the thoracic pieces to which they are closely related, 
with its appendage, can be easily observed. In three days they 
have attained their perfection, the skin peels off a falls away, 
and they now become three completed rings, the thoracic p 
ments. At the same time the tracheæ of the larva are thrown 0; — 
and then begins the formation of a peculiar tracheary system, 
which performs its functions only during the pupal period. we 
trunks and larger branches it resembles the larval system, but in 
the terminal rings is unlike anything else. In this respect thelt 
structure is very peculiar, in that all the e 4 
the liquids of the body, and nowhere, as before, do they i : 
branches to the different organs. The filling of the new gam 


T 
of air vessels with air does not go on during the remaining e 
j aE: 


iii cannot be completely seen during the life 
through the cross division of the proximal tubes (intima 
in a determined place of the stem near the anterior stige ae a 
At the third day the three segments of the thorax unite to pe 

: a small ring which posteriorly coalesces with the edge of wane 
larval segment; but the anterior edges are puffed up and a parts 

In the opening lie loose the chitinous parts of the mouth 

„the apparatus of hooks. The head of the fly is not yet to ‘sonst : 
but the rudiments of the same are still visible within _ silt : 

In the two formative disks of the body, which we would = a 

as appendages to the brain, develop into a vesicle contain 

esophagal ganglion, the head-vesicle, on which the pee et : 

tenn are already indicated, and from under who : 

the proboscis grows out. On the fourth day the head, W s pë is 4 

advanced forwards from within the thorax, comes to igh ae 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 607 


accompanied by an uninterrupted, strong contraction of the eight 
hinder segments of the larva still contained within. These last are 
shortened, and soon assume the form of the abdomen of the adult 
y. The head thus presses forwards out of the thorax, keeps 
pace in development with the thorax; the body of the pupa then 
lies as a whole contained within the puparium, and thus indicates 
the end of the first period. 

The process of development of the first four days is confined 
not wholly to the outer crust of the body, but also to the new re- 
modelling, or transformations of some of the inner organs. The 
nervous centres which had been separated in the larva here become 
United ; an infra-wsophageal ganglion separates (abschniirt) from 
the ventral cord, and the upper (supra-cesophageal ganglion) di- 
vides into two divisions, of which the outer may be considered the 
central organ of the sense of sight (ganglion opticum) and as the 
bulb of the compound eyes. 

All the anterior and middle portion of the alimentary canal 
sloughs off, and at the end of four days becomes renewed. This 
happens only to the cesophagus and chyle-stomach, while the pro- 
Yentricalus and cecal appendages of the stomach are not thus re- 
produced. They break up cell by cell; these cells are carried 
into the chyle-stomach forming there a compact mass, which is 
Surrounded with a peculiar covering, as if encysted. They do 
fill up the cavity, but swim in a honey-like liquid which by 
this time will have been secreted by the cells of the walls. Here 
the cells are preserved, though the organ is destroyed, thus the 
reconversion is effected in the walls of the chyle-stomach. c 
cell decays by fatty degeneration and in the place of the old cells 
‘rise new ones which rebuild the organ. The destruction of the 
cells is accompanied by a contraction of the muscular walls, and - 
thereby an important shortening of the organ is produced. Next 
these muscles as well as the traches decay, many branches of 
Mash are interwoven around the stomach of the larva; the 

mentary canal remains without air-vessels until the last day of 
the pupa state. As soon as the abdomen has formed, by the con- 
action of the subcutaneous muscles of the last eight larval seg- 
ments, the muscles disappear, and at the same time, namely, 
c ong the advance of the head, at which time also the nervous 
es become pushed forward ; they tear away also the degener- 
ated nervous branches, whose terminal threads likewise become 


608 THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 


destroyed with the organs in which they ramify. Of the influence 
of the nervous system on the entire organism, there is nothing to 
be said since the change of form of the central parts ts accompa- 
nied by a complete histological transformation, as the interpent 
tration of their cell masses with fat demonstrates. 

The dorsal vessel does not now perform its functions. The 
animal now consists of a thin cellulose skin, with its contents 
partly destroyed, in part completely destroyed, and in part already 
concerned in the new formation of the organs. The entire fat 
body, cellulose tissue, of the larva, is lost in a liquid mass of fat 
globules and nuçlei, and they are mingled with the decaying mus 
cles, tracheze, etc. At the end of the first period the contents of 
the pupal body may be well compared with the contents of the | 
fertilized egg. All visible traces of animal life have ceased; Mf — 
action of the centres of the expression of animal life is suspended, 
and out of this chaos of elemental parts the organs are built up : 
anew. One essential difference from the development of the 
bryo only remains, that at no time are all the inner organs want . 
ing. External activity and decay occur simultaneously. But ye 
internal or external movements are wanting; sense organs 
nerves are wanting, and there can be truly said to be no où a 
impressions received, though an activity may be ascribed yar a 
central parts of the nervous system. Yet a regular flow of that . 
does not occur, and the only relative physiological action bs pie : 
of breathing, which here goes on as passively as in the egg; ™ ie i 
one case through the stigmata and tracheæ, in the other by goes : 
pores of the egg-shell. An active breathing process, such as 3 : 
on in the perfect state, is entirely wanting. — ele 

While the decay of the inner organs is going 0D; emselves 4 
_ taken place, the formative elements begin to develop th 
out of the cell-mass ; fat nuclei, fat globules, and flakes 
unite into round masses of nucleated spheres, 
of building up a membrane around themselves, a! : 
nucleus within, Already in the third, still more in the: ‘eal 
the fourth, day do the appendages of the thorax grow 10 jarval 
and all arise from a thin cellulose skin, an 

: + ag the fat 
cavity which fills up with fat globules and nuclei 48 
gradually breaks up. With this begins the m x 
the appendages and of the external form of the : 
definitive form; the period of formation of the body ° 


ERTE i a mnie ASNO 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 609 


has ended, and now begins the period of development of the 
same. It lasts from the fifth day to the time of exclusion of the 
fly, and can, as has already been shown above, be divided into 
two subdivisions, of which the first reaches to the end of the sev- 
enth day. 

First to be noticed is the formation of the pupa-case, which, how- 
ever, was in existence at the end of the first period, but lies as the 
cuticula right on the cellular skin (zellenrinde) by which it was 
ensheathed. It now rises up and a space filled with clear liquid 
Separates it from the upper surface of the body. The cellular teg- 
ument (zellenrinde) of the appendages is thickened, partly by the 
increase of the cells present, which seem to receive their plastic 
material by endosmose, but partly through a free formation of new 
cells by a self division of the nuclei. The whole cavity of the 
limbs seem to be compactly filled with nuclei which are uniformly 
from the outer to the innermost transformed into cells. 

By the fifth day the last tarsal joint is divided into two lobes, 
and show the first position of the claws. On the sixth the sutures 
are more distinct, the pulvilli are formed, and on the seventh day 
the external form of the limb is completed. The hypodermis di- 
Vides into two layers whose deeper portion is disposed on the up- 
per surface of the skin and form the hairs and bristles. Inside 
the limbs only the position of the nerves and tracheæ of the pupa 
18 established, the muscles arise afterwards. 

In like manner the wings are formed, their veins arise, the hairs 
appear ; they attain their definitive form and are folded together. 

The halteres grow out, and instead of a single hollow, stunted 
Projection, they are completely formed, and hairy, though still 
Colorless. The antennæ also reach the same grade of perfection, 
and like the appendages, the segments themselves now assume 
their definite form. The four abdominal segments are formed out 
s = eight larval segments which originally formed the abdomen 

e fly. 


While the external form of the body rapidly advances in this 

r to its final perfection, corresponding but slower changes 

“re discovered in the viscera. ‘The fatty tissues continually dis- 
and as often the cavity of the body is filled more com- 
Pactly with nucleolated cells, and fat molecules. The newly formed 
ind “sophagus thickens at the end towards the proventriculus, and 
the first beginnings of the sucking stomach is indicated at 

AMER, NATURALIST, VOL. VIL 


610 THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 


this period. The chyle-stomach gradually changes in length, its 
walls are transparent and clear, and it is strikingly demarked from 
the dark small intestine rendered so by the walls filled with fat 
corpuscles. With this begins the period of decay, and it reaches 
on the seventh day its complete development. 

Already during the course of seven days usually begins the 
second subdivision of the second period which is characterized by 
the relative position and development of all the organs of the im- 
ago. On the seventh day we find in the cavity of the thorax the 
first trace of the muscles of the wing. Series of cells of the greatest 
fineness pass in determinate directions through the liquid masses 
of fat, and up to the fourteenth day increase in thickness, until 
finally they lie close together to the lateral spaces of the thorax, 
and only leave in the median line a slight space for the free pas- 
sage of the stomach. Their structure is, then, usually definitive, 
it is a sarcolemmous sheath filled with contracted fibres which lie 
together in fascicles, and are kept separate from one another by nu- 
cleated columns. Meanwhile out of the fragments of the old 
intestinal canal appears the new, and shortly after this is 
accomplished there is a union of the small intestine and rectum, 
and by the tenth day the rectal pouch is placed in relation with 
the four rectal apille. At the same time a new plexus of mus- 
cles begins to form on the upper side of the entire intestinal tract. 

Still the most important steps in the formation of the principal 
organs of sense of the fly, the compound eyes, fall into this last 
section of its deyelopmental history. The ocular disks, which 
originated out of the hinder division of the brain-appendage, ' 
still connected with the bulb at the beginning of the second period 
by means of a slender nerve. The bulb gradually extends itself 
so that it covers the whole interior of the eye-disk, and only be 
comes separated from it by a thin layer of fat, which has already 
arisen between the two parts. The bulb shows radiating streaks, 
which are indications of the nervous threads passing through it. 
Only out of the eye-disks will the true eyes be formed, i. €., the 
compartments with the dioptric apparatus, and the perceptive ner 
vous elements. On the twelth day, however, the disks and also 
each compartment leading out of it, have the very small diameter 
of 0-051 ™™., which is gradually at the close of the pupa state ®®- 

arged five times, while at the same time the cellular elements 
lying behind each corneons facet, forms for each chamber a Cry% 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 611 


talline body, a nervous thread and cortical substance. The pig- 
ment layer begins to form and is finished, and the bulb sends out 
the ganglion cells at the base of the chambers of the eye. The 
nervous centres also take on their last definite form, the hinder 
part of the ventral cord, which already in the first period had ex- 
tended out from the infra-cesophageal ganglion, and had extended 
back into the abdomen, now unites with the thoracic knot. 
similar longitudinal commissure unites it with the infra-cesophageal 
ganglion. At the last moment the central portions send out 
nerves to the sides into the thoracic muscles and into the limbs, 
n which during the tenth and eleventh day the muscles begin to 
form, and afterwards hindwards into the abdomen. 

Of the larval organs only the dorsal vessel is destined to pass 
over into the last division of the developmental period, but it still 
suffers a total transformation. A process of fatty degeneration 
Similar to that which took place in the alimentary canal occurs, 
and on the 12th day it assumes a new form and organization. 
Meanwhile it is not capable of performing its functions, as the 
Want of a histologically perfect system of muscles proves. 

The tracheary system is completed last of all. The first posi- 
tive condition is assumed on the 15th day, and by the 17th it is 
generally entirely formed. The trunks arise for the most part by 
means of the masses of nuclei out of the originally solid series of 
tells, the terminal branches of the organ out of a single cell ; 
e hollow Space between them will form the cavity of the trachea, 
while they branch out by growing outwards. Yet these cells may 
_ “tthe most part be traced back to the masses of nuclei, but soon 
: and especially within the inner of the bundles of primitive muscles 
7 of the thorax, they arise from an organization of the histological 
4 EA elements at hand, ie. the muscular nuclei. This remark- 


eet PEENE E E AEA E T O U re E S E ES, ee 


act does not take place without a reaction in the muscular 
e themselves; their sarcolemma disappears and they de- 
| teriorate into fascicles of trachea wanting the spiral thread. 
bal the organs which have trachex intimately connected with 
have the same developed in the last three days. The tracheæ 
ad Out in the nervous centres, in the bulb of the eyes, and the 
of on canal in its entire course is surrounded by a net work 
a them, They are sent to the rectal papilla in great abundance 
: an with a peculiar development. The dorsal vessel also and the 


¢ 


cavit, muscular system receives tracheæ and likewise the genital 
§ ties with their outlets and accessory apparatus. 


612 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


As the development of the genital glands has already begun 
during the larval state, so during all the pupa state it steadily 
goes on, the copulatory pouch, the accessory glands, and recep- 
taculum seminis, are developed with the new alimentary canal in 
the last section of the period of development. The genital glands 
of the male only attain their development during the pupal state, 
The eggs are developed directly after the exclusion of the fly. 

The final perfection of the external form is the coloring of the 
chitinous skin. Shortly after, on the 18th to 20th day, follows the 
hatching of the egg. 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR JOSEPH LOVERING.* 


GENTLEMEN AND LADIES OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR 
THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE :— 


Wuen the States General of France were assembled for the last 
time at Versailles, after a long interval of inactivity, and an inaug- 
ural address was pronounced by the Bishop of Nancy, Mirabeau 
passed upon his performance the sweeping criticism that he had 
missed the grandest opportunity ever offered to man for saying 
something or holding his tongue. And, whenever this Associa 
tion, comprising not only those who teach, but many who Cret” 
science, assembles, as it now does, to listen to the address of its 
retiring President, if he is duly sensible of his responsibility, be 
would gladly avail himself of Mirabeau’s alternative, either © 
being equal to the occasion or of being silent. But the rule of gi 
Association, adopted in the original draft of the constitution at 
` Philadelphia, and the example of my predecessors which I 9 

unwilling to reverse, leave me no choice; and when I see or 
me, not the terrible monsters of the French revolution, madde 
by the miseries of a downtrodden country, but calm ane high 
minded lovers of truth, I feel sure of a just and generous bape 
Welcome, then, the precious opportunity, enjoyed by the 


of Sch 
*The retiring President of the American Association for the Advancement 
ence, delivered at the Hartford meeting. 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 613 


of this Association, of discussing some of the great themes of 
science before an audience which has for its nucleus the original 
investigators, discoverers, and inventors in the country, and which 
like the sun, is surrounded by an extensive chromosphere only a 
little less brilliant than the central body by contrast; and let my 
earnest endeavor be not to abuse or waste the great privilege. 

I am confronted on the very threshold of my address by the 
doubt whether it were better to beat out the little bit of golden 
thought, for which I have time and capacity, into a thin leaf 
Which shall merely gild the whole vast surface of scientific inves- 
tigation, even for a single year, or to condense it into a solid 
though minute globule, only big enough and bright enough to light 
up some narrow specialty. The general practice which prevails, 
of selecting a President alternately from the two principal sec- 
tions into which the Association is divided, will justify me in pay- 
mg my particular addresses to the physical sciences, knowing that 
the large and active department of Natural History will be prop- 
erly treated in its turn by those most competent to do it. Not 
“ven the capacious mind of a Goethe, a Humboldt, a Whewell, or a 
Herbert Spencer is large enough to give a decent shelter to all 
the subjects which come within the scope of this Association. At 
the same time I must say that I sympathize with the remarks 
made by President Hunt at Indianapolis, when he questioned the 
Propriety of excluding geology from the ranks of the physical 
Sciences ; only I would give them a still wider significance. Phys- 
Kal science is distinguished from natural history not so much by 

Subjects as its methods. In my imagination I can picture to 
myself all these subjects as being handled in the same masterly 
rasp of mechanics and mathematics by which the physical astron- 
omer holds in his hands the history and the destiny of the solar 

? ‘ystem, What is only a dream or a fancy now may become a 
reality to the science of the future. Why, asked Cuvier, may not 
cara history some day have its Newton: to whom the laws of 
circulation of the sap and the blood will be only as the laws of 

Jee BE With'such an endorser, I may venture to quote these 
_ “tds of a consummate mathematician without fear of their being 
ait aside by the naturalists as one of Bacon’s Idols of the Tribe. 
am tntelligence which at any given instant should know all the 
o by which nature is urged and the respective situations of the 

beings of which nature is composed, if, moreover, it were suffic- 


614 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


iently comprehensive to subject these data to calculation, would 
include in the same formula the movements of the largest bodies 
of the universe and those of the slightest atom. Nothing would 
be uncertain to such an intelligence, and the future no less than 
the past would be present to its eyes.” The time has already come 
when a knowledge of physical laws and familiarity with the instru- 
ments of physical research are indispensable to the naturalist. 
I would not recommend that dissipation of intellectual energy, 
which will make a man superficial in all the sciences but 

rofound in none. But Helmholtz has established, by his own 
example, the possibility of being an eminent physiologist and, 
at the same time, standing in the front rank of physicists and 
mathematicians. The restlessness of human inquiry will never 
be satisfied with knowing what things are, until it has also dis- 
covered how and why they are, and until all the relations of 
space, time, matter, and force, in all the kingdoms of nature, 
have been worked out with mathematical precision. 

It is a happy circumstance in the history of science, that this 
vast mechanical problem did not rush upon the mind at once in 
all its crushing generality. The solar system, with a despotic 
sun at the centre, competent to overrule all insubordination among 
planets and comets and check all eccentricities and jealousies, 
and so far isolated from neighbouring systems as to fear nothing 
from foreign interferences and entangling alliances, presented & 
comparatively simple problem: and yet the skill and labor of 
many generations of mathematicians have not yet closed up the 
argument upon this first case. On the orbits of this domestic 
system they have been sharpening their tools for higher and more 
delicate work. The motions of binary stars have also been 
brought under dynamical laws, and partially subjected to the rule 
of gravitation, so far as the astronomer can judge from the best 
observations which he can make upon those remote objects. Bat 
when he launches out, with his instruments and his formulas, 1» 
clusters of stars, even those of greatest symmetry, he is wholly 
at sea, without chart or compass or lighthouse, and with no other 
illumination than that which comes from a prophetic demonstration 
in Newton’s Principia. The mathematician has here to treat, not 
with an unlimited monarchy, as in the solar system, but with 4 
republic of equal stars, and the dynamical condition of the clus 
ters is involved in all the obscurity of molecular mechanics; fF 


_ ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 615 


it matters not whether the individual members of a system are 
atoms or worlds, if the intervening spaces have corresponding 
magnitudes. Even in astronomy, the inspiration of mechanics 
and the pride of mathematics, how trifling is the region which has 
been subjugated to the rigid rules of the exact sciences when 
compared with the immense territories which remain under the 
jurisdiction of natural history, and must be studied, if at all, by 
the methods of the naturalist, though with an inverted microscope. 
If now we circumscribe our outlook by the line which marks 
where physical science ends and natural history begins, it will be 
possible to examine only a few of the salient points in the pros- 
pect before us: and what these are will depend upon the point 
of view which we select. Whewell presents the history of any 
Science at each of its successive epochs as circulating around one 
Powerful mind, which figures as the hero of the drama: and what- 
ever immediately precedes or follows is only the prelude or the 
closing strain to the great movement. In the philosophy of 
Comte, every science passes through a theological and metaphys- 
leal crisis before it reaches the healthy condition of positive 
knowledge, and its whole history is written out by him in these 
three acts. With Buckle, the progress of science, without which 
there could be no history, is coincident with the advance in civil- 
lation; but the action begins with science, and the reaction only 
Comes from external causes. All that science and civilization 
demand is perfect freedom of thought. The worst enemy of both 
18 the protective spirit in church and state, the former telling men 
What they must believe, the latter what they must do. 
| Each of these views of scientific development may be true but 
_ ‘Rot to the exclusion of all others. Metaphysical blindness or 
theological prejudice may block the way of science or defame its 
fair name. It has been stated that six members of the ultracler- 
mal party at Versailles voted against the appropriation for secur- 
mg observations of the approaching transit of Venus, because 
they did not believe in the Copernican system, and this too while 
the echoes of the celebration of the four hundredth birth-day of 
®pernicus are still resounding over the earth. So also, circum- 
Stances and even accidents may shape the course of discovery : 
~ happiest of all accidents, however, being the appearance on 
e of the discoverer himself. T 
The point of view which I have chosen for reviewing the close 


616 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. | 


and advancing columns of the physical sciences is this :—<Are 
there any improvements in the weapons of attack, or have any 
additions been made to them? These are of two kinds :—1. Instru- 
ments for experiment, and 2. The logic of mathematics. These 
are the lighter and the heavier artillery in this peaceful service. 
If we cast a hurried glance over that long period of experi- 
mental research which began with Galileo and ended with Davy, 
we recognize, as the chief instrumentalities by which physical 
science has been promoted, the telescope, the microscope, the 
pendulum, the balance, and the voltaic battery. It is not neces- 
sary for me to enlarge upon the strength and accuracy which the 
battery and the balance have given to chemistry, or on the stretch 
and precision of vision which the telescope and microscope have 
bestowed on astronomy and physics. These instruments, the 
veterans of many a hard fought battle, science still enjoys: not 
superannuated by their long service but continually growing in 
power and usefulness. The little opera-glass with which Galileo 
first lifted the veil from the skies and awoke the thunders of the 
Vatican has blossomed out into the magnificent refractors of 
Cambridge, Chicago, and Washington. The little reflector with 
which Newton, by a happy mistake, expected to supplant the lens, 
has grown into the colossal telescopes of Herschel, Rosse, 
the Melbourne observatory. The spasmodic, momentary action of 
Davy’s batteries, sufficient, however, to inaugurate a new -e 
in chemistry, has been superseded by constant currents, which 
grumble not at ten hours a day. After lighting up the forelands 
of a continent during the night they are fresh to work an ocean 
telegraph the next morning. With all my wonder at this BA 
terious instrument which serves so faithfully the cause of science 
and civilization, with renewed admiration of the microscope and 
the telescope, one of which transforms an invisible speck of 
matter into a universe and the other collects the immensity of 
the heavens into a little celestial globe upon the retina of 
eye, I must pause for a moment to eulogize that simplest and 
most modest of scientific tools, the pendulum. : 
With the eye of science Galileo saw in the leaning Campanile a 
Pisa, not a freak of architecture, but the opportunity of exper- 
menting on the laws of falling bodies: and, in the adjacent wei 
dral where others admired the marble pavement or the vaul i 
roof, the columns, statues, or paintings, his attention was caugh! 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 617 


by the isochronous vibrations of the chandelier, which during the 
long centuries has never been absolutely at rest. When it is said 
that the pendulum has no rival as a standard of length except the 
metre, that it furnishes an exact measure of time, and that time 
isan indispensable element in the study of all motion, and also 
the most available means of obtaining longitude on the earth and 
tight ascension in the heavens, a strong case has been made out 
for the practical and scientific usefulness of Galileo’s discovery. 
During the long years of doubt in regard to the true figure of the 
earth, the pendulum maintained the cause of Newton in opposition 
to the erroneous reports of the geodesists, until Maupertuis, by a 
new measurement, flattened, as has been pithily said, the earth and 
the Cassinis at the same time. The shape, rotation, and density of 
the earth ; the diminution of terrestrial gravity with an increase of 
distance from the centre; the local attractions of mountains, and 
Secrets hidden below the surface of the planet, have been dis- 
Covered or verified by the declarations of the pendulum: which, 
Whether in motion or at rest, has never tired of serving science. 
And, in a wider sense, the pendulum has done for the electric and 
Magnetic forces what, in its restricted meaning, it did for gravity. 
That which Borda failed of accomplishing in the measurement of 
ares the pendulum realizes in its measurement of time: it multi- 
Plies its observations, eliminates its own errors, strikes its own 
average, and presents to science the perfect result. In 1851, a 
crowd of spectators was assembled in the Pantheon of Paris to 
Withess the first performance by the pendulum of the new part 
Prepared for it by Foucault: in which, obedient to its own inertia, 
are indifferent to the earth’s rotation, it preserves the parallelism 
of its motion: an experiment startling though not wholly unantici- 
Pated, and which has made the circuit of the earth. The new con- 
trivance of Zöllner promises to indicate changes in the direction of 
a force as accurately as the common pendulum measures intensity. 
Let us now consider what the physicists of our own day, and 
immediate predecessors, have added to their rich inheritance 
of instrumental means, remembering all the time that, however 
ive from their novelty these additions may be, and how- 
ever manifold their applications, they have only supplemented the 
“Xperimental methods which have been described without sup- 
Planting them. For the most part, the later devices would be 
Useless without the coöperation of the earlier ones. 


618 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


An interesting event in the history of science, which must be 
known to many of you, has taken place during the current year. 
In 1824, Poggendorff began to edit the Annalen der Chemie und 
der Physik. Under his supervision 150 volumes have been issued, 
containing 8,850 distinct communications from 2,167 different 
authors, the 193 papers of H. Rose outnumbering those of any 
other contributor. The history of physical and chemical dis- 
covery during the last fifty years might be written out of the 
materials treasured up in this single journal. In recognition of 
the signal service which Poggendorff has hereby rendered to 
science, his friends assumed the editorship of one volume in 1874, 
which is called the Jubilee volume [Jubelband]. 

In 1826, Poggendorff described in volume vii. of his journal a 
device of his own invention for observing with exceeding nicety 
the movements of a magnetized bar. A mirror was attached to 
the bar and moved with it. From this mirror a beam of light 
was reflected into a theodolite. This was the origin of the happy 
thought of amplifying a trifling motion by making the finger 
of a long and delicate ray of light serve as a weightless pointer. 
A few years later, this idea was embodied by the mathematician, 
Gauss, in an instrument which he called the magnetometer. 
Since that time, it has been continually budding out in new appli- 
cations, scientific and practical. I need only recall to your recol- 
lection the beautiful method of Lissajous for compounding the 
vibrations of tuning-forks, and tracing in golden lines the curves 
which are characteristic of different musical intervals and varied 
phases of vibration. A new chapter has been opened in mechanics 
for describing and explaining these strange and nameless curves; 
and, in acoustics, the ear has been dispossessed by the eye of what 
would seem to be its own by right divine, and it is no longer the 
best scientific judge of sounds. By new devices Koenig has 
translated time into space and made visible the individual vibra- 
tions of the invisible air; and, in numerous ways, the mechanism 
of sound is as real to the eye as the sensation is to the ear. 

With a bare allusion to the fact that every message which 
passes over the cable telegraph is a tribute of indebtedness to the 
simple but comprehensive method of Poggendorff, I pass to tW? 
other cases of great difficulty and wide significance in which the 
same method has triumphed. I refer to the determination of 
velocity of electricity and the velocity of light. 


the 


g 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 619 


When Wheatstone devised and executed the ingenious experi- 
ment of producing three electrical sparks, not strictly at the same 
instant, but after the brief interval required by electricity to travel 
over one quarter of a mile of copper wire, and then of observing, not 
the sparks themselves, but their images, as seen in a mirror re- 
volving with the prodigious velocity of 800 turns in a single second, 
and from the prolongation and relative displacement of these 
images deducing the velocity of electricity, the duration of the 
electrical light, and the duality in the direction of the transmitted 
disturbance, he delighted the brotherhood of science by the skill 
and boldness of his attempt and astonished it by the extravagance 
of his results. For twenty years no one ventured to repeat the 
difficult experiment. When at length it was tried by Feddersen, 
and more recently by our own associate, Rood, the values which 
they assigned to the duration of the electrical light, and which could 
not be challenged, made still the wonder grow. So far as this 
mode of experimenting concerns the velocity of electricity, Wheat- 
stone stands alone: and his estimate of this velocity (the largest 
known Velocity in the universe unless we count in the velocity of 
stavitation) has never been brought to a second trial. Indirectly, 
ìt has been tested by some of the operations conducted upon land 
and ocean lines of telegraph. When the local times of two places 
ate compared by means of electro-magnetic signals, sent alter- 
nately in Opposite directions, the difference of longitude and the 
tansmission-time of electricity can be disentangled from one an- 
other, by the strategy of mathematics, and the most probable value 
Computed for each. The velocity which has been calculated from 
these longitude-campaigns falls far below that credited to Wheat- 

ears The apparent discrepancy is explained by a misinterpre- 
tation of Wheatstone’s experiment. An experiment which proves 
~ electricity runs through one quarter of a mile of wire at the 
Mior 288,000 miles a second does not justify the inference that 
would move over. 288,000 miles in one second. Anomalous as 
de may be, electricity has no velocity in the ordinary sense. 
to transmission time of the electrical disturbance is proportioned 

the square of the distance to be travelled. Therefore, the 

| a y has no constant fixed value, but varies with the length of 
a amey. This law, which is deduced from the mathematical 

ty of Ohm, introduces order among the experiments where, 
Stherwise, there would be chaos. It is not surprising that Wheat- 


620 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


stone and the readers whom he addressed were misled by the orig- 
inal facts. Few men, who have rendered signal services to science, 
and who have finally reached the highest pinnacle of fame, have 
suffered more from poverty and neglect, and waited longer for a 
recognition of their merits, than the modest student of Nuremberg. 
The slender volume which will perpetuate his name was indeed 
published at Berlin in 1827, and antedates Wheatstone’s experi- 
ment by seven years. But the book was treated with contempt 
by a minister of state, to whom Ohm presented a copy, at his 
university of Cologne, and was first brought to the notice of 
English readers in 1841, when an English translation of it was 
effected through the agency of the British Association, and the 
Copley medal was presented to Ohm by the Royal Society of 
London. As late as 1860, when the same work was rendered into 
French, the translator admits that the mathematical theory of Ohm 
on the galvanic cireuit, the elements of which have since rapidly 
circulated in popular text-books, was almost unknown in France, 
that high seat of science. If the serene but steady light of math- 
ematics had not been dimmed by the blaze of experimental suc- 
cesses, and the teachings of Ohm had been heeded sooner, the 
science of electricity. would have been the gainer, and the men 
of science would have been saved the mortification of treating the 
electromagnetic telegraph as an impracticability. 
When Wheatstone was a candidate to fill a vacancy among the 
corresponding members of the French Institute, it was objected 
that he had only made a brilliant experiment, but had not discov- 
ered a new principle. Arago came to his rescue and asserted thet 
he had introduced a powerful and fertile method of experimentation 
which would be felt in other sciences besides electricity. The 
French physicist lost no time in devising means for making 
these claims. If it could be proved experimentally that the ve- 
locity of light was greater in air than in water a capital fact 1m 
the contending theories of light would be settled forever. Arago 
planned the experiment and pressed its feasibility upon the Acad- 
emy of Sciences with all the power and eloquence of his natur® 
At last he roused two younger physicists to undertake what is 
growing infirmities prevented him from doing with his own hands. 
The result declared in favor of undulations, and a fatal blow was 
dealt to the corpuscular theory of light which had vexed science 
since the days of Newton. If Fizean and Foucault drew their 1- 


: 
i 
q 


SS a ee te ee ee ee se ee 


eS ie epee 


26S SSS er ay) on 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 621 


spiration from Arago, they owed their success to nothing except 
their own skill in devising and executing. Having tried the tem- 
per of their steel on this easier problem, they were ready for the 
grand attack, which was to measure the absolute velocity of light. 

The instrumental arrangements of these two experimentalists 
agreed only in the part which each borrowed from Poggendorff: 
the details differed so widely as to give to whatever agreement 
might appear in their results the force of an irresistible argument 
for their accuracy. ` The velocity of light, as found by Fizeau in 
1849 by the artificial eclipses which the teeth of his revolving 
wheel produced, exceeds by about six per cent. the velocity which 
Foucault obtained, in 1862, with the moving mirror. The arith- 
metical mean of the two values comes very close to the astrono- 
mer’s estimate of the velocity of light. But this simple average 
I8 precluded unless it can be proved that the two experiments are 
entitled to equal weight. The internal evidence, expressed by 
what mathematicians call the probable error, manifested a decisive 


_ preference for Foucault’s result, and it has met with general accep- 


ce. The soundness of the scientific judgment in this case has 
been placed beyond all cavil by Cornu, who has recently repeated 
izean’s experiment, with additional precautions, and resolved the 
discord into a marvellous accord. Fizeau’s experiment, in spite 
of the numerical defect, was hailed as one of the grandest triumphs 
of experimental skill. In 1856, he received the prize of 30,000 
francs which the Emperor of the French had founded, to be given 
the work or the discovery, which, in the opinion of the five 
academies of the Institute, had conferred the greatest honor and 
meee upon the nation. Hitherto, it had been supposed that 
nothing short of an interstellar or an interplanetary space was a 
match for the enormous velocity of light. And yet one physicist, 
by using a distance of less than six miles, and another, without 


_ Boing outside of his laboratory, have discovered what astronomers 


had searched heaven and earth to find out. 

_ By these capital experiments the science of optics has achieved 
lts own independence. Let us see what they have done, at the 
Same time, for astronomy. The sequences in the eclipses of Jupi- 
ter’s moons are modified by the velocity of light. The aberration 
x Starlight is a measure of the ratio between the velocity of light 


4nd the Velocity of the earth. For nearly two centuries our 


Knowledge of the velocity of light leaned upon. one or the other 


622 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


of these relations. If the velocity of light can be known from 
experiment, the problem may be reversed and the distance of the 
sun given to the astronomer. As soon at it appeared that Fou- 
cault’s estimate of the velocity of light fell short of the astronom- 
ical valuation by about three per cent, it was’ certain that either 
the experiment was in error, or the received aberration was too 
small, or the reputed distance of the sun was too large. An error 
of three per cent. in the experiment or in the aberration was inad- 
missible. But it was conceivable that the distance of the sun 
should be at fault, even to this extent. The popular announce- 
ment that Foucault had picked a flaw in the astronomer’s work 
was not correct. Astronomers had always known what those who 
pinned their scientific faith on text-books did not expect: that 
the problem of finding the sun’s distance was an exceedingly 
delicate case, and that an ominous cloud of uncertainty hung over 
their wisest conclusions. Whenever it is possible to interrogate 
nature in more ways than one, science is not satisfied with a single 
answer, nor with all the answers unless they agree. The transit 
of Venus, the parallax of Mars, and the tables of the Moon, each 
can tell the sun’s distance. But their testimony was contradictory, 
and neither one at all times repeated the same story. The ques- 
tion was, which to believe. Since 1824, when Encke published 
his exhaustive computations on the last transits of Venus, the 
distance which they assigned to the sun has been acquiesced in as 
the most probable. But the moon, as has been said, has always 
been a thorn in the sides of mathematicians. While practical and 
theoretical astronomers have been reducing its motions to stricter 
discipline, the suspicion has been steadily gaining strength in their 
minds that the distance adopted from the transits was too large. 
The effect of Foucault’s experiment was to intensify the doubt. 
The case of the twin transits of the last century, thought to have 
been closed forever by Encke, has recently been opened again by - 
the astronomer Stone. When Venus has nearly entered upon ke 
sun, the moment of interior contact is preluded by the formation 
_ of a slender ligature (called the black drop) between the nearest 
parts of the two discs; caused, perhaps, by irradiation. One ob- 
server has recorded the time when this ligature began, another 
the time when it was broken. In working up the observations 
the last transits, both classes were not combined indiscriminately: 
Mr. Stone has reéxamined the documents, classified differently the 


i 
i 
; 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 623 


materials, and extracted from them two new and independent 
values for the sun’s parallax. The reconciliation which he has 
suddenly brought about between the experiments of Cornu and 
Foucault, the motions of the moon, and the transits of Venus, 
is as perfect as it is surprising. Nevertheless, the approaching 
transits of Venus, the earliest of which is close upon us, will be 
welcomed, if not as the only possible way of solving a hard 
problem, at least for the confirmation which is demanded by a 
solution already reached: for able astronomers have dissented 
ftom the interpretation put upon the records by Stone. The minds 
of observers have been prepared for what their eyes are to see, in 
December, 1874, by the experimental rehearsal of the black drop, 
and the photographer’s box will arrest the planet in the very act. 
The consequences of Foucault’s experiment, substantiated as it 
may be by the best astronomical evidence, are as far reaching as 
the remotest stars and nebulæ. The sun’s distance is the astron- 
omer’s metre, through which masses, diameters, and distances are 
Proportioned out to planets, comets, and stars. If the sun’s dis- 
tance is cut down by three per cent., there must be a general con- 
traction in all the physical constants of the universe. The earth 
only is immediately exempt from this liability. But if, as modern 
“lence teaches, the earth lives only by the triple radiation from 
the sun, then an earlier doom has been written for the earth also. 
: logy is no longer allowed to cut its garment from a past dura- 
ton of unlimited extent. The numerical estimates of physical 


_ “lence, with a large margin of uncertainty, assign limits between 


“hich alone geology has free play. Whatever tends to reduce or 
those limits must be of interest to the geologist as well as 
to the astronomer, 

This is the brilliant career, in electricity, optics, astronomy, and 
geology, of the little mirror, cradled in the laboratory of Poggen- 
dorf, ana which has not yet seen its fiftieth birthday. 

Making this exhibit of the instrumental appliances of modern 

. sics, I will simply name the polariscope, the stereoscope, and 
“ instruments in photography, and hurry on to the spectroscope. 

“© steps by which the spectroscope has attained its preeminent 


; E among the instruments of the physicist and the astronomer 


ere taken at long intervals. A whole century intervened between 
*wton’s experiments with the prism and Wollaston’s improve- 
Ment. The substitution of a long and narrow slit for the round 


624 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


hole in the window shutter was enough to reveal the presence of 
the two boldest dark lines in the solar spectrum. Wollaston 
stood on the threshold of a rich development in science, but 
neither he nor his compeers were ready for it, and what he saw, 
novel as it was, attracted little attention. Spectrum analysis, in 
relation to light itself, began when Frauenhofer published, in 
1817, in the memoirs of the Bavarian Academy, an account of his 
experiments on the direct and reflected rays of the sun, on star- 
light, and various artificial sources of light: dispersing the rays 
by prisms of fine Munich glass and then receiving them into 4 
theodolite. Frauenhofer repeated some of his experiments in the 
presence of the younger Herschel, but for many years he had the 
field wholly to himself. A paper by Herschel on the colors of 
artificial flames acquires a new interest from what has been done 
more recently. Between 1830 and 1860, numerous physicists, 

ong whom are the well known names of Brewster, Miller, 
Wheatstone, Powell, Stokes, Gladstone, Becquerel, Masson, 
Van der Willigen, Pliicker, and Angstrém, were at work upon the 
facts connected with the emission of light by incandescent bodies 
and its absorption by gases and vapors. As early as 1830, Simms 
had placed a lens in front of the prism, with the slit in, the focus, 
and another lens behind the prism to form an image of the slit. 

The first hint of that pregnant fact, the reversal of the bright 
spectrum bands of flames, came from Foucault in 1849. His ex- 
periment was repeated at Paris, in 1850, in the presence of Sir 
William Thomson. It was reserved for a young physicist of 
Heidelberg, who was not born until seven years after Frauenhofer. 
laid the foundations, to place the keystune upon the structure on 
which many hands had labored: by demonstrating, in 1860, the 
law which is the theoretical basis of the chemistry of the heavens 
Kirchhoff, with admirable frankness, is careful to say that this law 
had been anticipated by others, especially by Angstrom and 
Balfour Stewart, although it had not been sharply stated oF 
severely proved. It is a singular fact that the mechanical ex- 
planation of the law, as it has been expounded by Kirchhoff, 
Angström, and Stokes, was partially enunciated one hundred years 
ago by the mathematician, Euler, when he said that every sub- 
stance absorbs light of the special wave-length which correspo 
to the vibration of its smallest particles. The 11th of July, 186» 
will be ever memorable in the history of science as being the day 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 625 


on which Magnus read, before the Berlin Academy, Kirchhoff’s 
memoir on the chemical constitution of the sun’s atmosphere, an 
the existence in it of familiar substances found upon the earth. 
Speedily, spectroscopes were multiplied, modified, and improved, * 
and became indispensable auxiliaries in the workshop, the labora- 
tory, and the observatory. It is not necessary to enlarge upon 
what this instrament has done for common chemistry, in hunting 
out the minutest traces of common substances and detecting new 
ones. The physician, the physiologist, the zoologist, the botanist, 
and the technologist. have shared with the chemist and the physi- 
cist the services of this powerful analyst. But it is the highest 
Prerogative of the spectroscope to be able to make a chemical 
analysis of celestial bodies, upon the single condition that they 
give to it their light. Polarization can only say whether any 
portion of this light is reflected. The motions which the telescope 
uncovers may decide in favor of a central attraction, but it is 
silent as to the intensity of this attraction unless the moving 
body belongs to the solar system. The universality of a gravi- 
tation may be proved, but not the universality of the very 
stavitation which pervades our own system; except by an argu- 
ment from analogy. We see that one star differs from another 
Star in glory. But what the other differences or resemblances 
até we know not, without the spectroscope. Henceforth astron- 
omy possesses a new instrument of discovery, and also a new 
tribunal to which all speculations about the sun and the stars, the 
aurora and the zodiacal light, the meteors and the comets, must 

‘brought and by which they must be judged. 

T leave it to the naturalists to assign a value to the alleged 
anticipations of Darwin by the geometer Maupertuis, who was 
Said to have died just before he was going to make monkeys talk. 
n and conceit of Lord Monboddo are not worthy of 
sya Lamarck began life as a soldier: was a meteorologist as 
| hipaa long as Napoleon. would allow him to be: perhaps he 
op. otanist from choice, but he was made a zoologist, in spite 
; : » by the revolutionary Convention. He was as brave in 
: "y M ae war; but he expected to create it, by a simple effort 
: his jo : Having demolished the modern chemistry, he turned 
: 208] noclastic zeal into natural history. His philosophy of 
Laplace Was published a few years after the cosmogony of 

< °S; in which the mathematician broaches the theory of evo- 

NER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 40 


626 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


lution as a mechanical doctrine, capable of explaining certain 
characteristics of the solar system, about which the law of gravi- 
tation is silent. Whoever reads the stately chapters of Laplace, 
on the stability of the planets and the safeguards of the comets, 
will easily recognize expressions which are the mechanical equiv- 
alents of the principles of natural selection and the survival of 
the fittest. The elder Herschel hazarded the speculation, that the 
clusters of stars and the nebule which his devouring telescope 
had picked .up, by hundreds, on the verge of the visible heavens, 
“were genuine suns assembled under the organizing power of 
gravitation; and that the varieties in size, shape, and texture, 
were produced by differences of age and distance. The imagi- 
nation of Herschel and other astronomers has taken a loftier 
flight. To them many of the nebule are not clusters of stars, but 
unborn solar systems, waiting for that consolidation by which 
planets are ‘evolved and a central sun is formed, and destined thus 
to repeat the cosmogony of the home system. Comte claims that 
he has raised the nebular hypothesis to the rank of positive sci- 
ence. He supposes the stupendous enginery of evolution to be 
reversed. He follows, with his mathematics, the expanding sun 
backwards into chaos, until it has absorbed into its bosom even 
the first born among the planets, and finds, at every stage, numer- 
ical confirmation of what Laplace threw out as a plausible cone 
jecture. As Mr. Mill and other writers of note have accepted this 
authority, it should be understood that Comte has never published 
the data or the process of his computations, By whatever other 
inspiration he arrived at his conclusion, he was not brought to it 
by his mathematics. He has said all that is necessary to show 
that he ignored all the difficulties of the problem, and dodged the 
only solution that could give satisfaction. The cosmogony of 
Laplace, with all its fascination, must be excluded from exact 
mechanics and remanded back to its original place in mone 
history, by the side of the more general nebular hypothesis ai 
Herschel. All other cosmogonies which poetry or science a 
invented are childish in comparison with this: and no one woul 
desire to banish it from science altogether, until it is disproved ° 
displaced by something better. Instead of deciding, it must share 
the fate of the all-embracing cosmical speculation of Halley. 
How uncertain that fate is we may be taught by the frequency 
with which the preponderance of evidence has shifted from 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 627 


side to the other, during the last fifty years. The irresolvability 
of many of the nebule, by powerful telescopes, led Herschel to 
espouse the cause of a diffuse primeval matter, out of which 
worlds were fashioned. No wonder that, in particular cases, the 
hegative evidence was sometimes turned into positive evidence on 
the other side, by improvements in telescopes. Although every 
nebula which deserted from the nebular hypothesis strengthened 
the suspicion that the remaining irresolvability was purely optical, 
4 sufficient amount of negative evidence would probably have 
always existed to create more than a doubt in the minds of many 
astronomers. On the discovery of spectrum analysis, observers 
ied around it, in the hope of finding an escape from the 
dilemma: and this new hope has not been disappointed. The 
continuous spectra of some nebulae prove them to be suns, envel- 
oped in more or less of atmosphere. The broken spectra of other 
nebulæ show that they are in the condition of an incandescent 
gas. The classification which the spectroscope makes of the neb- 
ule Corresponds so well with their telescopic appearance as to 
justify the confidence which one class of astronomers had in their 
way of deciding on the truth of the nebular hypothesis. While 
“Ne spectroscope has manifested varieties of material, color, tem- 
perature, and consolidation in nebule and stars, both single and 
composite, beyond anything which the perfected telescope’ could 
ever have revealed, it has at the same time found enough of earth 
aK of them to make man feel at home any where in the visible 
universe, The fact that certain well-known substances on this 
Pass current everywhere in nature leads irresistibly to the 
„asion that all the specimens came originally from the same 
. = It is the legitimate office of science to reduce the more 
__. Pex to the simple: to explain, if possible, the existing state 
of matter by an anterior state. The nebular hypothesis, which 
- Attempts to do this, no longer starts from a conjecture but a 
reality : viz., the existence of diffused incandescent vapor; and 
Science will hold on to it, until a better theory of mechanical 
“evelopment is found.— Concluded in next number. 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


Tue PRINCIPLES OF Scrence.*—Though each scientist, whether 
consciously or not, does his work on principles underlying all 
useful and durable efforts, yet the methods have been gradually 
developed, and the laborer in one department may be ignorant 
of the’ mode of procedure in others quite remote from his line of 
study. The author discusses the methods common to all the sci- 
ences, though with a bias towards physical science, particularly 
physics, chemistry and astronomy. As a result we have a boo 
which we are sure will win the sympathy of the reader, as it is an 
earnest and sensible treatise. Wherever we have opened the vol- 
ume we have been attracted by the interest and clearness of the 
style, and the general tone of the discussion which, though on the 
whole conservative, is in full accordance with the spirit of modern 
science. . 

The chapters on the use of hypothesis, and the character of the 
experimentalist are capital. Professor Jevons boldly says “ it is 
wholly a mistake to say that modern science is the result of the 
Baconian philosophy ; itis the Newtonian philosophy and the New- 
tonian method which have led to all the great triumphs of physi 
science, and I repeat that the ‘ Principia’ forms the true ‘Novum 
Organum.’” If we mistake not, the theory of evolution, as sug- 
gested by Lamarck, Spencer, Darwin and others is a result of the 
Newtonian rather than the Baconian method; certainly it may be 
said in its present’ stage to be a “hypothetical anticipation of 
nature,” valuable as it is as a means of research. 

In the chapter on Classification the author states his belief that 
‘a natural classification is an “arrangement which would display 
the genealogical descent of every form from the original life germ 
Those morphological resemblances upon which the classification 
of living beings is almost’ always based are inherited resem- 
blances, and it is evident that descendants will usually re mble 

neir parents and each other in a great many points.’ Muc 

ance is given to the bifurcate or dichotomic arrange 


universally used in descriptive biology. 


por pe emer 
* The Principles of Science; a treatise on Logic and Scientific Method. P3 ss 
Stanley Jevons. Special American Edition, bound in one volume, New Yor 
Millan & Co., 1874. 8vo. pp. 480. 

_ (628) 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 629 


How a mind trained in logic and the methods of exact science 
looks upon the theory of evolution, may be seen from the following 
extract :— 


_ We now perceive that the ultimate system will.be an almost 
Infinitely extended genealogical tree, which will be capable of 


mensely great, beyond all possibility of separate treatment, 
“Clentific men have ea mene at some convenient but arbi- 


fach other as to present no constant difference were all of one 
Main They have, in short, fixed their’ attention entirely upon the 
n features of family difference. In the genealogical tree which 
rrr 


“Swainson, ‘Treatise on the Geography and Classification of Animals,’ *Cabinet 
®dia,’ p. 201, 


Cyelop, 


630 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


they have been san mT aiming to construct, diverging lines 
meant races diverging in character, and the purpose of ‘all efforts 
at so-called natural tecciheaticn was to trace out the relationships 
between existing plants or animals. ow it is evident that he- 
reditary descent may have in different cases produced very differ- 
ent results as regards the problem of classification. In some cases 
the differentiation of characters may have been very frequent, and 
specimens of all the characters soe "er may have been transmit- 
ted to the present time. A living form will then have, as it were, 


ms fin 
resemblances. Exact and distinct SUREE will then be 
almost impossible, and the wisest course will be not to attempt 
arbitrarily to distinguish forms closely reisa in nature, but to 
allow that there exists transitional forms of every degree, to mark 


perhaps to select the most generalized form, or that which pre- 
sents the greatest number of a resemblances to others of the 
family, as the type of the w 
r. Darwin, in his most ‘itarsating work upon Orchids, points 

out that the tribe of Malaxez are distinguished from Epidendree 
by the absence of a caudicle to the pollinia, but as some of the 
_ Malaxez have a minute a cle the division really breaks down 
in the most essential point t 

‘This is a misfortune, he remarks,* ‘which every naturalis 
encounters in attempting to y a largely developed ae 
called natural group, in which, relatively to other groups, . et 
has been little extinction. In order that the naturalist — y 
enabled to give precise and clear definitions of his div ee y 
ranks of intermediate or gradational forms must have been ut gri 
swept away : if here and there a member of the intermediate a 
has escaped ee it puts an effectual bar to any absolutely 
distinct definiti have 

In other cases a particular plant or animal may aera ali 
transmitted its form from generation to generation almost U 


unsuitable to their circumstances, and may have perished re 
or later. We shall then find a particular form standing apan E 
all others, and marked by various distinct ehari Oce rly 
ally we may meet with specimens of a race which w s m y 
mmon but is now undergoing extinction, pe is p ri 
the last of its kind. Thus we may explain the occurrence k x 
ceptional forms such as are found in the Amphioxus. The 
x botanists by their want of affinity to 


perpie of pari r enes- 
of ya a plants. This doubtless indicates that their 8 


* Darwin, ‘ Fertilization of Orchids.’ p. 159. 


— 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 631 


logical connexion with other plants must be sought for in the most 
distant past ages of geological development. 

Constancy of character, as Mr. Darwin has said,* is what is 
chiefly valued and sought after by naturalists; that is to say nat- 
uralists wish to find s i i 


selves to defining and registering the degrees and limits of that 
gradation. The ultimate natural arrangement will often be devoid 
at 


Ap be discovered, and will require the modification of the system. 
natural system is directed, as we have seen, to the discovery of 


From paying too much attention toa classification by types, i.e., 
by selecting one typical form and grouping around it allied forms, 
Professor Jevons believes that “a certain laxity of logical method 
is thus apt to creep in, the only remedy for which will be the 
frank recognition of the fact that according to the theory of heredi- 
tary descent, the gradation of characters is probably the rule, and 
the precise demarcation between groups the exception.” 

The author agrees with those naturalists who regard the exist- 
ence of any such groups as genera and species as “an arbitrary 
creation of the naturalist’s mind ;” an important result of the estab- 
lishment of the theory of evolution being “to explode all notions 
Gt re ERSE 


*‘ Descent of Man, vol. i, p- 214. 
+‘ Laws of Botanical Nomenclature,’ p. 16. 


632 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


about the existence of natural groups constituting separate crea- 
tions.” e whole is in his opinion a question of degree. 

What is the outcome of the tendencies of modern scientific 
thought, materialism and the reign of physical law? The log- 
ical and courageous philosopher with the modesty of true science 
will exclaim with our author, after a survey of the little that is 
positively known of the laws of nature that ‘before a rigorous 
logical scrutiny the Reign of Law will prove to be an unverified 
hypothesis, the Uniformity of Nature an ambiguous expression, 
the certainty of our scientific inferences to a great extent a delu- 
sion.” 

The closing paragraphs of the book leave an excellent impres- 
sion, and its whole tendency is to induce that attitude of the mind 
which characterizes the true philosopher who, as our author quotes 
from Faraday, ‘shou e a man willing to listen to every Sug- 
gestion, but determined to judge for himself. He should not be 
biased by appearances; have no favourite hypothesis; be of no 
school: and in doctrine have no master. He should not be 4 
respecter of persons, but of things. Truth should be his primary 
object. If to these qualities be added industry, he may ind 
hope to walk within the veil of the temple of nature.” 


Scammon’s MARINE MAMMALS OF THE NORTHWESTERN COAST AND 
AMERICAN WHALE-FISHERY.* —The title of Capt. Scammon’s im- 
portant work indicates sufficiently its object and scope. It 8 
divided into three parts, besides containing a lengthy appendix. 
Part I (comprising 112 pp.) is devoted to the natural history of 
the Cetacea, or the whales, porpoises and dolphins. Part I 
(69 pp.) treats in a similar way of the Pinnipedia, or the seals, 
while Part III (87 pp.) contains a concise and very interesting 
history of the American Whale-fishery. In Part I, the author 
has before him an almost wholly unworked field, and one in which 
he proves himself to have been an intelligent and faithful laborer. 
The marine mammals, and especially the Cetacea, from the nature 


unwieldy proportions and wary dispositions, are among the oe 
difficult animals to study that the naturalist encounters. Only 
Kal iS Ne uit (a eee 


mals of the Northwestern Coast of North America, described ant 
illustrated : together with an account of the American Whale-fishery- By ca 
Scammon, Captain U. S. Revenue Marine. San Francisco: John H. Carmany 

1874. 4to, 319 pp., with 27 lithographic plates and numerous woodcuts. 


* Thea Maxi Af. 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 633 


naturalist who combines with his scientific knowledge the experi- 
ence of a whaleman could even hope to give more than a very in- 
adequate account of the habits of these ‘monsters of the deep.” 
The immense size of many of the larger Cetacea, and the great 
infrequency of opportunities of observing them stranded, or wholly 
removed from the water, render it very difficult to get either ac- 
curate figures of them or more than approximate measurements. 
Capt. Seammon seems to have enjoyed rare opportunities for col- 
lecting material for his book, and an excellent preparation for the 
task he has undertaken, for, besides his twenty years of personal 
experience and observation, he has availed himself of information 
acquired by other intelligent whalemen. Hence his biographies, 
Statistics of size, and his figures of the animals are far more satis- 
factory than anything that has previously appeared treating of the 
general history of these little known animals. Fourteen pages, 
for instance, are devoted to the California gray whale (Rhachi- 
anectes glaucus Cope) in which is detailed not only its habits and 
distribution, but the methods and dangers of its pursuit and cap- 
ture; the article being also illustrated with three lithographic 
tes. The bowhead or great polar whale (Balena mysticetus) 
Teceives an equally extended notice, this species being ‘by far the 
Most valuable in a commercial point of view of all the Balenide 
and is the chief object of pursuit by the whaleman in the northern 
w The yield of oil, in large individuals of this species, is 
Suid to exceed sometimes two hundred and seventy-five barrels, 
while the product of baleen may be upwards of three thousand 
five hundred pounds. The whaling grounds are described at 
» as is also what is termed “Bowhead Whaling.” Capt. 
Scammon considers it as conclusively proved that this species 
Passes from the Atlantic to the Pacific, “or rather,” as he expresses 
: 't, “from the Atlantic Arctic to the Pacific Aretic by the North,” 
o and believes that air-holes always exist in the ice which covers the 
=e waters, even in the coldest latitudes. About a dozen pages 
ate devoted to the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), and 
about five to the orca, or killer, which is, of all the Cetacea, the 

Most rapacious and terrible to the larger denizens of the sea. 
tn Part II the ground is less new, but here very material steel 
a aons are made to a better knowledge of several species of 
z larger Pinnipeds, especially of the sea elephants, sea lions, 
fur seals of the California coast, and also of the sea otter 


634 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


(Enhydra marina), which is singularly included with the Pinni- 
pedia! The history of the wholesale destruction of these animals 
for commercial purposes possesses a peculiar and rather melan- 
choly interest. Besides adding much new matter to the history of 
the fur seal as observed by the writer on the California coast, 
the chapter is made much more complete by the quotation of the 
greater part of Capt. Bryant’s excellent article on the fur seals 
of Alaska, published a few years since in the Bulletin of the Mu- 
seum of Comparative Zoology.* 

Part III is possibly the most interesting portion to the general 
reader, giving as it does not only a succinct chronological and 
statistical history of the American Whale-fishery, but also vividly 
portraying the privations, dangers, and excitements attending this 
daring pursuit, as well as the special training, energy and skill 
necessary to its successful prosecution. New England may well 
be proud of the names so favorably mentioned as the founders and 
leaders in this great enterprise, whose vessels were often the first 
to bear our national emblem to remote waters and distant seaports. 

In the appendix is given a systematic “catalogue of the Cetacea 
of the North Pacific Ocean” by Mr. W. H. Dall, of the U. S. Coast 
Survey, prepared with special reference to Capt. Scammon’s mono- 
graph in the preceding pages of the general work. This catalogue 
embraces also many osteological notes and descriptions of new 
forms. The list comprises about forty-four species, which Mr. 
Dall observes, “appear to be more or less thoroughly character- 
ized,” but ten are of unknown habitat. ‘Leaving these out,” he 
adds (with all species based on insufficient material), we have as 
the approximate distribution of the known Pacific Cetacea : Japan, 
five species; northern seas, six species, including two Or three 
which visit California; warm seas and South Pacific, eleven SP 
cies ; coast of Western North America, from the Aleutian Islands 
to Central America, eighteen species, including several visitors 
from the Arctic Seas.” 

The volume closes with a “glossary of words and phrases used 
by whalemen,” and a list of the “stores and outfits” usually taken 
out by a first-class whale-ship for a Cape Horn voyage. 

While Capt. Scammon’s work is very satisfactory in the fulness 
with which it deals with external characters— color, size, form 
proportions, etc.—and in its biographical details, the author ab- 

Vol. II, pp. 95-108, 1870. 


ae 


Sots eta ee 


A 


i 
i 
; 
: 
) 
i 


BOTANY. 635 


stains (and perhaps wisely) from a critical discussion of points 
of synonymy and affinity ; yet it is a work that goes far towards 
filling a wide gap in marine mammalogy, to which subject it is a 
most welcome and important contribution. The publishers have 
spared no pains, apparently, to make the work attractive, and the 
illustrations are generally of a high order of execution. The 
work is very appropriately inscribed by the author to the memory 
of Louis Agassiz.— J. A. A. 


BOTANY. ; 

Borany or WiıLkes Sooru Paciric EXPLORING EXPEDITION. — 
Since the lamented death of Dr. Torrey, his report on the Botan- 
ical collections made by the naturalist of Wilkes expedition on 
our western AmericAn coast, has been printed under the care of 
Prof. Gray. It makes the larger part of the 17th volume of the 
results of that expedition, of which, like the rest, only 100 copies 
are printed by Congress. A small number of extra copies have, 
however, been secured, at private expense ; these are bound up with 
the preceding part of the volume, devoted to the Lower Crypto- 
gamia of the expedition (Lichens, Algæ and Fungi) and the large 
Plates being folded and bound in, the whole makes a stout royal 
{arto volume, with 29 plates. The Naturalists’ Agency has this 
on sale, at ten dollars. The mosses of the same expedition by 
Sullivant, which form the first part of this same volume in the 
sovernment copies, in the extra edition have the letter-press made 
up into imperial folio pages, in double columns, to match the 26 


great folio plates. A very few copies of this handsome volume 


remain in the hands of the late Mr. Sullivant’s executors, and 


` Can be had for ten dollars each. 


‘ INFLUENCE or Forests on THE RAINFALL. —Àt a recent meet- 
0g of the French Academy M. M. Fautra and Sarquiau read a 
note relative to this subject. They found from experiments made 
M A forest of more than 500 hectares,* and also on a plain free 
ftom trees situated about 300 yards from the forest, that much 
oe rain fell in the wooded part than on the plain. 


* A hectare is 11,960 English square yards. 


ZOOLOGY. 


Tue Snow Goose. — On the 6th of October, 1873, I shot at Mt. 
Carmel, Illinois, a fine adult male Anser hyperboreus, which had 
been living with a flock of tame geese for nearly a year. The 
bird had been crippled in the wing the preceding fall, but the 
wound, which was merely in the muscles, soon healed, and it 
escaped by flight. It flew about half a mile, and, observing 4 
flock of tame geese upon the grassy ‘‘commons” between the 
town and the river, alighted among them. It continued to stay 
with them, going home with the flock regularly every evening, to 
be fed and enclosed in the barn-yard. 

My attention was attracted to this bird by its owner, Mr. 
Thomas Hoskinson, from whom I got the above facts; and who 
kindly told me that if I would shoot the bird he was willing to 
have it sacrificed to science. Accordingly, I repaired to the 
‘‘commons” and found the flock at a locality designated. Anter 
some little search the “white brant” was discovered, being dis- 
tinguished by its black quill-feathers, rather smaller size, shorter 
neck, black instead of bluish eyes, and the black space along the 
commissures of the bill. When unmolested this bird was as Un- 
mindful of a person as the tame geese, and it required chase - 
make it endeavor to escape, which it always did by rising easily 
from the ground, and flying to the river — sometimes half a mile 
distant. 

The specimen was in fine plumage and excellent condition, 
made a very clean, perfect specimen when prepared. It mea 
as follows: — Length, 27 inches; extent, 57; wing, 17; culm eg 
2-25; tarsus, 2; middle toe, 1-75. Its weight was 5} lbs. Bill 
deep flesh-color, the upper mandible with a salmon-colored ting® 
and the lower with a rosy pink flush; the terminal ungui nearly 
white; the commissures enclose an elongate oval space of R 

lack; iris very dark brown; eyelids greenish-white; tars! an 
toes purple-lake, the soles of the feet dingy Naples-yellow. 

A remarkable feature of this specimen is that one or two of ont 
primaries are entirely pure white, while most of the ree 
ones have longitudinal spaces, of greater or less extent, 0n “ 
inner webs. The question arises, whether this is merely 2 pss 

(636) 


and 


GEOLOGY. ANTHROPOLOGY. 637 


of partial albinism, or a change produced by the modified condi- 
tion of its food and mode of life.— Rosert Ripeway. 


GEOLOGY. 

DEEP SEA TEMPERATURE IN THE ANTARCTIC Sea. —In the Re- 
port to the Admiralty of Capt. G. S. Nares, of H. M. S. Chal- 
lenger, dated Melbourne, March 25, 1874, Capt. Nares, śpeaking 
of the temperature of the ocean, especially near the pack edge of 
the ice, says :—*“ At a short distance from the pack, the surface 
water rose to 32°, but at a depth of 40 fathoms we always found 
the temperature to be 29°; this continued to 800 fathoms, the 
depth in which most of the icebergs float, after which there is a 
stratum of slightly warmer water of 33° or 84°. As the thermom- 
eters had to pass through these two belts of water before reaching 
the bottom, the indices registered those temperatures, and it was 
Impossible to obtain the exact terhperature of the bottom whilst 
hear the ice, but the observations made in lower latitudes show 
that it is about 31°. More exact results could not have been ob- 
tained even had Mr. Siemens’ apparatus been on board.” 


3 ORIGIN or THE VaLiey or THE Rurne.—Geologists intending to 
travel up the Rhine should by all means read an interesting paper 

Prof. A. C. Ramsay on the origin of the Valley of the Rhine, 
Contained in the Quarterly J ournal of the London Geological So- 
ciety (May 1, 1874). He states that the valley during portions of 
the miocene tertiary period was drained by a river flowing from 
horth southwards, and after the upheaval of the Alps the present 
"iver originated and flowed through an elevated plain formed of 
miocene rocks, leaving the existing plain, “which to the unin- 
structed eye presents the deceptive appearance of once having 
been occupied by a great lake.” 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 
_ EXTENT or THE Axcent CIVILIZATION OF Perv.— Prof. C. F: 
irt writes to the president of the Anthropological Society of 


Berlin, that in a journey to the river Amazon he found some pieces 


a Pottery of which some recall curious forms discovered in Peru, 
“nd which prove that the ancient Peruvian civilization extended to 


the eastern side of the Andes. 


MICROSCOPY. 


SPHZRAPHIDES IN Tea Leaves. — The present interest in the 
question of adulteration of tea leaves gives special importance to 
Mr. George Gulliver’s discovery that the parenchyma of these 
leaves is thickly studded with spheraphides, apparently of oxalate 
of lime, having a mean diameter of about +545 inch. They have 
hitherto escaped notice, being not easy to find on account of the 
opacity and density of the parts. Soaking, or boiling the leaves 
in a potash solution, separates the epidermis (which is composed 
of cells with sinuous margins, and smooth, taper, slightly curved 
hairs, with the addition of oval stomata on the under side) and 
exposes distinctly the parenchyma, nerves, and spheraphides. He 
has found potash equally useful in exposing the crystals in other 
plants. à 


New Microscoricat Socretres.—A new society has been or- 
ganized in Australia, known as the “ Microscopical Society of 
Victoria.” Mr. W. H. Archer is the first President. 

A Microscopical Department of the Providence Franklin So- 
ciety has been established, with the following officers for Re 
present year:— Chairman, Professor Eli W. Blake, Jr. ; Vice 
Chairman, A. O. Tilden; Secretary, Professor John Peirce ; Cabi- 
net Keeper, N. N. Mason; Treasurer, Dr. C. B. Johnson. 

The “Indiana Microscopical Society” was incorporated Feb- 
ruary 16, 1874. It is located at Indianapolis, and holds monthly 
meetings. 


APPEARANCES OF THE BLoop IN Metanosis.— M. Nepveau rep- 
resents that the blood of persons affected with melanotic tamom 
becomes marked by the presence of an excessive proportion 
leucocytes which are also filled with dark granules; the red cor- 
puscles when seen in masses have more or less of a sepia ee 
and the serum contains reddish-brown granules, and flexible cas 
resembling hyaline casts which seem to be derived from 
capillaries. | 

Acuromatic Buxt’s Ere Conpenser.— This unusual ee 
was exhibited by Mr. Ingpen at a late meeting of the Quecke 
Club. 

(638) 


NOTES. 639 


Emseppine Tissues.—At the Queckett Club wax was spoken of 
as the chosen material for embedding tissues preparatory to cut- 
ting thin sections. Dr. Matthews preferred paraffine to beeswax. 
Dr. George Hoggan, however, considered carrot preferable to 
wax, and elder pith better than either. 


Gircerine Mountine. — According to Dr. George Hoggan, gly- 

cerine is used almost universally for mounting in France. A little 

- paraffine is run around the edge of the cover-glass, and a solution 
of sealing wax painted over it. 


NOTES. 

Proressor JEFFRIES Wyman, of Cambridge, died suddenly at 
Bethlehem, N. H., on September 4th. For many years Professor 
Wyman had been in delicate health and obliged to spend the win- 
ter months in Florida, while the heat of summer was avoided by 
excursions to the mountains, and it was hoped that with the great 
care he was taking he would be spared for many years to come; 
especially did this seem probable from his apparently restored 
condition on his return from Florida last spring, when he seemed 
to have renewed vigor for the labors before him, and commenced 
to put the material he had collected during his Florida trips in 
order for publication. This was so far advanced that at the time 
of his decease he was engaged in printing his memoir upon the 
Shell-mounds of Florida, a work that it is greatly to be hoped was 
So far completed in manuscript as to ensure its publication, as it 
Will undoubtedly exhibit the thoroughness and cautiousness with 
Which his investigations were made. 

fessor Wyman was born in Chelmsford, Mass., August 11, 
1814. He graduated at Harvard in the class of 1833, and four 
years after received his degree of M.D. He then passed two 
Years of study in Europe, and soon after returning to this country 
“cepted the position of Professor of Anatomy at the Hampden 
Sidney College of Virginia, which place he held until 1847, when 

accepted the Hersey Professorship of Anatomy and Physiology 
at Harvard, which position he held at the time of his decease. 
He was one of the original Trustees, appointed by Mr. Peabody, 
of the Peabody Museum of American Ethnology and Archeology, 
and had from the first held the position of Curator of that Mu- 
seum which owes so much to his care and labors. He always 
took an active part in the Boston Society of Natural History, and 


640 NOTES. 


succeeded Dr. Warren in the office of president, which office he 
held until 1870 when the state of his health compelled him to re- 
sign the chair. He was one of the original members and first 
officers of the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence, and was also an original member of the National Academy. 
For many years he acted on the council of the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences, and was an honored member of many other 
societies. Professor Wyman was of a singularly modest and re- 
tiring disposition, and though a constant and most laborious 
worker, his reluctance to appear in public, and his extreme modesty 
regarding the results he attained, has prevented the world from 
sharing in. but a very small part of his great knowledge, as his 
publications have been comparatively few in number. Ever ready 
to assist and guide those who sought his council he was, while 
scientifically severe, a most genial and thorough friend, and was 
greatly honored and respected by his pupils and friends. 

In his death humanity loses an upright, reliable and strictly 
honest. man, and science one of the most thorough and cautious 
of investigators. 


Tue French Association for the Advancement of Science held 
its third meeting at Lille, Aug. 20th, with a large number of foreign 
scientists in attendance. Over one hundred and fifty persons read 
papers during the meeting. One of the attractions was a visit to the 
new laboratory of experimental zoology at Vimereux, near Bou- 
logne. There was also an excursion to Bruges and Antwerp. The 
session lasted for eight days. 


Tue International Congress of Anthropology and prehistoric 
Archæology opened Aug. 7, at Stockholm, with an attendance of 
800 members, of which more than 300 were foreigners. Everything 
betokened a brilliant meeting. 


Tae new geological survey of Pennsylvania is being pushed 
with much vigor under the direction of Prof. J. P. Lesley i 
$30,000 annually for three years have been voted by the legisla- 
ture. 


PROFESSOR CARL Moesıus left Kiel on the 25th of July for 

auritius. He will remain there five or six months to study the 
marine fauna of the island and make collections for the Prassiat 
Universities. 


ee oe 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vol. VIII.— NOVEMBER, 1874, — No. 11. 
ece ODD 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR JOSEPH LOVERING.* 


[Concluded from October Number.] 

Ay interesting question, which has waited thousands of years 
even to be asked, and may wait still longer for an all-sufficient 
answer, relates to the motion of what were once called the fixed 
stars, If numbers count for anything, this is the grandest prob- 
lem which can be presented to the mind of the astronomer. The 
argument from probabilities, which reposes on a substantial math- 
matical foundation, is loud in affirming some kind of motion, and 
tepudiates the notion of absolute rest. We must place the stars 
outside the pale of science, and where no process of reasoning 
a ean reach them, or we must suppose that they subscribe to the 
a Miversal law of all matter which we know, and exert attractive 
_ repulsive forces upon each other. There may be one solitary 
“J, OF more probably an ideal point of space, the centre of 
Stavity of the material universe, around which there is equilib- 
| rium ; but everywhere else there must be motion. Though 
, ace may reduce the effect of each one of the forces to a 
m nimum, in the aggregate their influence will not be insignificant. 
a a must share the common lot of the stars unless we repeat 
ONY of ancestral science, at which we now smile, and transfer 


Pe 


r i Ta isnag a A E EET A E cay 
n ece nt tiring President of the American Association for the Advancement of Sei- 
ered at the Hartford meeting. 


et oning to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF 
lg Be of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. T 
T, NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 41 (641) 


642 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


the throne of the heaven of matter from the earth to the centre of 
our own little system. If the sun move, a new.order of paral- 
lactic motion springs up in sidereal astronomy. The process of 
elimination requires the mathematician to calculate the direction 
and velocity of the motion of the sun which will leave behind it 
the smallest unexplained residuum: and this remainder is the 
motion of the stars themselves. The delicacy of the problem 
lies in the minuteness of the quantities to be observed and in the 
assumptions which must be made in regard to the distances of the 
stars; only a few of which have been positively computed from 
parallax. However, a result has been reached, highly probable 
in the sun’s case, but which can be converted into absolute values 
for other stars only so fast as their individual distances are dis- 
covered. Here again physics and chemistry, with the spectro- 
scope in hand, have come to the aid of astronomy and geometry. 
Should it appear that the conclusions from spectrum analysis 
must be questioned, the attempt was brave, and even a defeat 
would be honorable. 

In 1675, a Danish astronomer observed the novel fact that 
the frequency in the eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites fluctuated with 
the motion of the planet to or from the earth. He hit upon * 
happy explanation, viz: that the swift light takes more Or less 
time to telegraph the astronomical news across the omnipresent 
lines of force. This early observation is the avant-courier of & 
host.of others which have slowly followed in close array. That 
of a blind musician comes next. He noticed, in 1835, that the 
pitch of .a steam-whistle, on the Lowell Railroad, fell suddenly a8 
the locomotive passed him. Unfortunately, Munroe’s observation 
was never published, although he sought and found an explanation 
of what was then a strange fact. In this case, the whistle sends 
the message, the waves of sound transmit it, and the ear is the 
register: but the changing distance modifies the time. In 1842, 
Doppler of Prague was led, by theoretical considerations, tO for 
mulate the proposition, now known in science as Doppler’s pula 
ciple: that the color of light and the pitch of sound, as they tell 
upon the senses, are changed by the relative velocity of the ob- 
server and the origin of the disturbance. In 1845, Buy Ballo’ 
made experiments upon the railroads in the Netherlands, and 
Scott Russell repeated them on English railroads, which coi 
firmed the theory in the case of sound. In the application of the 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 643 


theory to color, few astronomers will be willing to follow Doppler 
in all his extravagancies. 

If it be true, theoretically, that the relative velocity of light, 
the wave-length of transmission, and the period of oscillation in 
the ether, are altered by the relative motion of the observer and 
the place from which the undulation starts, it is obvious that all 
other velocities have but a small chance in competition with the 
velocity of light, and that slight changes of color, if physically 
real as Doppler supposed, would fail of being recognized even by 
the eye of a painter. To interpose the spectroscope, and observe 
the change of refrangibility by the displacement of the sharp lines 
of the spectrum, was a lucky escape from this embarrassment. 
After Huggins had tried his hand at this new method, with a 
small telescope, upon the brightest of all the stars, he was sup- 
plied by the Royal Society of London with a larger instrument 
to pursue the investigation. The results of his spectroscopic in- 
quiry into the motions of many stars have been published. Where 
these results have conflicted with the foregone conclusions of as- 
tronomy, Huggins has not hesitated to arraign the accuracy of 
astronomical data and methods. I have freely admitted the deli- 
cacy and difficulty of the geometrical process. The spectroscopic 
analysis, when applied to the same problem, walks upon slippery 
ground and must take heed lest it also fall. The alleged dis- 
Placement is a nice quantity, and instrumental sources of error 
Mave been pointed out which may explain away the whole of it. 
I lay no stress upon the large difference between Vogel and 
Huggins in the quantity of motion which spectrum analysis 
ascribes to Sirius, inasmuch as the direction of the motion is the 
Sine. We do not yet know all the elements*which the earth 
_ Contains. The spectroscope has already added four to the 
_ ‘Mmber, There is reason to think that the stars, though having 
some Substances in common with the earth and sun, are not 
without their peculiarities, The lines in the stellar spectra may 


i hag of position, not because they are the displaced lines of 
. _ » Magnesium, and hydrogen, but in consequence of novel- 
2 JA In the gaseous atmospheres of the stars. Still, there will be 
| Presumption, perhaps a probability, in favor of Huggins’ deduc- 

m, ir it rest on a sound basis of theory. If there is any weak- 
2 ay im the physical and mathematical foundation of his argument, 


644 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


gratifying as it is to the imagination and the aspirations of science, 
the whole superstructure must fall. 

I am thus suddenly brought face to face, with the second head 
‘of my subject: the mathematical and philosophical state of the 
physical sciences. 

The luminiferous ether and the undulatory theory of light have 
always troubled what is supposed to be the imperturbable charac- 
ter of the mathematics. The proof of a theory is indisputable 
when it can predict consequences, and call successfully upon the 
observer to fulfil its prophecies. It is the boast of astronomers 
that the law of gravitation thus vindicates itself. The undulatory 
theory of light has shown a wonderful facility of adaptation to 
each new exigency in optics, and has opened the eye of observa- 
tion to see what might never have been discovered without the 
promptings of theory. But this doctrine, and that of gravitation 
-also, have more than once been arrested in their swift march an 
obliged to show their credentials. After Fresnel and Young had 
secured a firm foothold for Huyghens’ theory of light in mechanics 
and experiment, questions arose which have perplexed, if not 
baffled, the best mathematical skill. How is the ether affected by 
the gross matter which it invests and permeates? Does it move 
when they move? If not, does the relative motion between the 
ether and other matter change the length of the undulation or 
the time of oscillation? These queries cannot be satisfactorily 
answered by analogy, for analogy is in some respects wanting 
between the ether and any other substance. Astronomy says that 
aberration cannot be explained unless the ether is at rest. Optics 
replies that refraction cannot be explained unless the ether moves. 
Fresnel produced a reconciliation by a compromise. The ether 
moves with a fractional velocity large enough to satisfy refraction, 
but too small to disturb sensibly the astronomer’s aberration. In 
1814, Arago reported to Fresnel that he found no sensible differ- 

ence in the prismatic refraction of light, whether the earth ni 
moving with full speed towards a star or in the opposite direction, 
and asked for an explanation. Fresnel submitted the question - 
mathematical analysis, and demonstrated, that whatever < ge 
was produced by the motion of the prism in the relative velocity 
of light, the wave-length in the prism, and the refraction, = 
compensated by the physiological aberration when the ™ 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 645 


emerged. Very recently, Ketteler of Bonn has gone over the 
whole ground again with great care, studying not only Arago’s 
case but the general one, in which the direction of the light made 
any angle with the motion of the earth: and he proves that the 
light will always enter the eye in the same apparent direction as 
it would have done if the earth were at rest. The mathematical 
and physical view taken of this subject by Fresnel, has been under 
discussion for sixty years, and forty eminent physicists and math- 
ematicians might be enumerated who have taken part in it. Fres- 
nel’s explanation has encountered difficulties and objections. Still, 
it is consistent not only with Arago’s negative result but with 
the experiments on diffraction by Fizeau and Babinet, and the 
preponderance of mathematical evidence is on that side. Mr. 
Huggins runs counter to the general drift of physical and algebrai- 
cal testimony (although he appears to be sustained by the high 
authority of Maxwell), when he attributes some displacement of 
the spectrum lines to the motion of the earth, and qualifies the 
observed displacement on that account. The number of stars 
Which Huggins has observed is insufficient for any sWeeping gen- 
eralization. And yet he seems inclined to explain the revelations 
of his spectroscope, not by the motion of thé stars, but by that of 
the solar system: because those stars which are in the neighbor- 
hood of the place in which astronomers have put the solar apex 
are moving, apparently, towards the earth, while those in the op- 
Posite part of the sky recede. If it be true that the earth’s annual 
Motion produces no displacement in the spectrum, then the motion 
of the solar system produces none. Or, waiving this objection, if 
the correct explanation has been given by Huggins, astronomers 
have failed, by their geometrical method, of rising to the full 
Magnitude of the sun’s motion. The discrepancy appears to 
_ *Waken no distrust in Mr. Huggins’ mind as to the delicacy of the 
‘“Pectrum analysis or the mathematical basis of his reasoning. 
On the contrary, he would remove the diserepancy by throwing 
a redit on the estimate of star-distances made independently by 
ve and Argelander from different lines of thought. 
canes we ask, if it is certain that even the motion of the lami- 
ywn change the true wave-length, the period of oscillation, 
ANd the refrangibility, of the light which issues from it. The 
TR ly received opinion on this subject has not been allowed 
OOS a Unchallenged. It is fortified by more than one analogy : 


646 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


but it is said that comparison is not always a reason. It is not 
denied that, when the sonorous body is approaching, the sound 
waves are shortened, the number of impulses on the ear by the 
condensed air is increased, and the pitch of the sound is raised. 
Possibly, the color of light would follow the same law; but there 
is no experiment to prove it, and very little analogy exists between 
the eye and the ear. There is no analogy, whatever, between the 
subjective sensation by either organ and the physical action of the 
prism. The questions at issue are these :—Does refraction depend 
upon the absolute or the relative velocity of light; are the time 
of oscillation of the particles of ether and the normal wave-length, 
corresponding to it, changed by any motion of translation in the 
origin ; or is the conservation of these elements an essential attri- 
bute of the luminiferous medium. It has been said that Doppler 
reasoned as if the corpuscular theory of light were true, and then 
` expressed himself in the language of undulations. Evidently, 
there is an obscurity in the minds of many physicists, and an un- 
certainty in all, when they reason upon the mechanical constitution 
of the ether, and the fundamental laws of light. The mathemati- 
cal theory is not so clear as to be able to dispense with the illumi- 
nation of experiment. Within the present year, Van der Willigen 
has published a long and well considered memoir on the theore 

ical fallacies which vitiate the whole of Huggins’ argument for 
the motion of the stars and nebulae. His analysis proves that the 
motion of the luminary will not interfere with the time of oscilla- 
tion and the wave-length, provided that the origin of the disturb- 
ance is not a mathematical point but a vibrating molecule, and 
that the sphere of action of this molecule upon surrounding mole- 
cules is large enough to keep them under its influence during ten 
or a hundred vibrations, before it is withdrawn by the motion of 
translation. If this theoretical exposition of the subject should 
be generally adopted by mathematicians, the spectroscopic obser 
vations on the supposed motion of the stars must receive another 

interpretation. On the other hand „if a luminary is selected which : 
is known to move, independently of spectroscopic observations: 
and the displacement of the spectrum lines accords with this mo- 
tion, it will be time to reconsider the mathematical theory , and 
make our conceptions of the ether conform to the experiment : 
The Spectroscopic observation of Angstrom on an oblique a 
spark does not favor Huggins’ views. Secchi testifies to opPo* 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 647° 


displacements when he examined, with a direct vision spectro- 
scope, the two edges of the sun’s equator, one of which was 
rotating towards him and the other from him, and Vogel has re- 
peated the observation with a reversion-spectroscope. This would 
have the force of a crucial experiment were it not that an equal 
displacement was seen on other parallels of latitude, and that the 
bright bands of the chromosphere were moved but not the dark 
lines of the solar atmosphere. 

When Voltaire visited England in.1727 he saw at the universi- 
ties the effect of Newton’s revolutionary ideas in astronomy. 
The mechanism of gravitation had exiled the fanciful vortices of 
Descartes, which were still circulating on the continent. So he 
Wrote : ‘‘A Frenchman who comes to London finds many changes 
n philosophy as in other things: he left the world full, he finds it 
empty.” The same comparison might be made now, not so much 
between nationalities as between successive stages of scientific 
development. At the beginning of this century the universe was 
as empty as an exhausted receiver: now it has filled up again. 
Nature’s abhorrence of a vacuum has been resuscitated, though 
for other reasons than those which satisfied the Aristotelians. It 
ls the mathematicians and not the metaphysicians who are now 
discussing the relative merits of the plenum and the vacuum. 
Newton in his third letter to Bentley wrote in this wise :—“ That 
sravity should be innate, inherent and essential to matter, so that 
oe body may act upon another at a distance, through a vacuum, 
without the mediation of anything else, by and through which 
their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to 
me so great an absurdity, that I believe no man, who has in philo- 
“ophical matters a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall 
nto it.” Roger Cotes, who was Newton’s successor in the chair 
of mathematics and natural philosophy at Cambridge, was only 

years old when the first edition of the Principia was issued, 
d Newton outlived him by ten years. The venerable teacher 


Pronounced upon the young mathematician, his pupil, these few 
> Comprehensive words of eulogy: “If Cotes had lived, we 


ve known something.” The view taken of gravitation 
by Cotes was not the same as that held by his master. He adyo- 
meet the proposition that action at a distance must be accepted 
Prete of the primary qualities of matter, admitting of no farther 
malysis, It was objected by Hobbes and other metaphysicians, 


648 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


that it was inconceivable that a body should act where it was not. 
All our knowledge of mechanical forces is derived from the con- 
scious effort we ourselves make in producing motion. As this 
motion employs the machinery of contact, the force of gravitation 
is wholly outside of all our experience. The advocates of action 
at a distance reply, that there is no real contact in any case, that 
the difficulty is the same with the distance of molecules as that 
of planets, that the mathematics are neither long-sighted nor 
short-sighted, and that an explanation which suits other forces is 
good enough for gravitation. 

Comte extricated himself from this embarrassment by excluding 
causes altogether from his positive philosophy. He rejects the 
word attraction as implying a false analogy, inconsistent with 
Newton’s law of distance. He substitutes the word gravitation, 
but only as a blind expression by which the facts are generalized. 
According to Comte’s philosophy, the laws of Newton are on an 
equality with the laws of Kepler, only they are more comprehen- 
sive, and the glory of Kepler has the same stamp as that of 
Newton. Hegel, the eminent German metaphysician, must have 
looked at the subject in the same light when he wrote these 
words: —‘‘ Kepler discovered the laws of free motion; 4 dis- 
covery of immortal glory. It has since been the fashion to say 
that Newton first found out the truth of these rules. It has 
seldom happened that the honor of the first discoverer has been 
more unjustly transferred to another.” Schelling goes farther in 
the same direction: he degrades the Newtonian law of attraction 
into an empirical fact, and exalts the laws of Kepler into neces- 
sary results of our ideas. : 

Meanwhile, the Newtonian theory of attraction, under the skil- 
ful generalship of the geometers, went forth on its triumphal 
march through space, conquering great and small, far and neat 
until its empire became as universal as its name. The whirlpools 
of Descartes offered but a feeble resistance, and were finally 
dashed to pieces by the artillery of the parabolic comets; and the 
rubbish of this fanciful mechanism was cleaned out as completely 
as the cumbrous epicycles of Ptolemy had been dismantled by 
Copernicus and Kepler. The mathematicians certified that the 
solar system was protected against the inroads of comets, and the 
border warfare of one planet upon another, and that its stability 
was secure in the hands of gravitation, if only space should be 


2 


excep A 2. E ees te Pe ae aaa et ee Se eae 


a EŞ 


tainly t 


ew 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 649 


kept open, and the dust and cobwebs which Newton had swept 
from the skies should not reappear. Prophetic eyes contemplated 
the possibility of an untimely end to the revolution of planets, if 
their ever expanding atmospheres should rush in to fill the room 
vacated by the maelstroms of Descartes. When it was stated 
that the absence of infinite divisibility in matter, or the coldness 
Of space, would place a limit upon expansion, and, at the worst, 
that the medium would be too attenuated to produce a sensible 
check in the headway of planets, and when, in more recent times, 
even Encke’s comet showed but the slightest symptoms of 
mechanical decay, it was believed that the motion was, in a prac- 
tical, if not in a mathematical sense, perpetual, Thus it was that 
the splendors of analysis dimmed the eyes of science to the in- 
trinsic difficulties of Newton’s theory, and familiarity with the 
language of attraction concealed the mystery that was lurking 
beneath it. A long experience in the treatment of gravitation 
had supplied mathematicians with a fund of methods and formulas 
Suited to similar cases. As soon as electricity, magnetism and 
lectro-magnetism took form, they also were fitted out with a gar- 
ment of attractive and repulsive forces acting at a distance: and 
the theories of Cavendish, Poisson, Aepinus and Ampere, endorsed 
as they were by such names as Laplace, Plana, Liouville and 
Green, met with general acceptance. 

„~ae seeds, which were destined to take root in a later genera- 
tion, and disturb if not dislodge the prevalent interpretation of 
the force of gravitation, were sown by a contemporary of Newton. 
found no congenial soil in which they could germinate and 
fructify until the early part of the present century. At the 
Present moment, we find the luminiferous ether in quiet and undi- 


_ | CS Possession of the field from which the grosser material of 
“neient systems had been banished. The plenum reigns every- 


Where; the vacuum is nowhere. Even the corpuscular theory of 


_ it, as it came from the hands of its founder, required the rein- 


ent of an ether. Electricity and magnetism, on a smaller 
< > applied similar machinery. If there was a fundamental 
“on to the conception of forces acting at a distance, cer- 
bridge was already built by which the difficulty could be 

nted. The turning-point between the old physics and the 
Phy sics was reached in 1837, when Faraday published his 
ients on the specific inductive capacity of substances. 


650 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


This discovery was revolutionary in its character, but it made no 
great stir in science at the time. The world did not awake to its 
full significance until the perplexing problem of ocean telegraphs 
converted it from a theoretical proposition into a practical reality, 
` and forced it on the attention of electricians. The eminent scien- 
tific advisers of the cable companies were the first to do justice to 
Faraday. This is one of the many returns made to theoretical 
electricity for the support it gave to the most magnificent com- 
mercial enterprise. 3 
he discovery of diamagnetism furnished another argument in 
favor of the new interpretation of physical action. What that 
new interpretation was is well described by Maxwell. “ Faraday, 
in his mind’s eye, saw lines of force traversing all space, where the 
mathematicians saw centres of force attracting at a distance; 
Faraday saw a medium where they saw nothing but distance; 
Faraday sought the seat of the phenomena in real actions going 
on in the medium, they were satisfied that they had found it in & 
power of action at a distance impressed on the electric fluids.” 
The physical statement waited only for the coming of the mathe- 
maticians who could translate it into the language of analysis, 
and prove that it had as precise a numerical consistency 48 the 
old view with all the facts of observation. A paper published by 
Sir William Thomson, when he was an undergraduate at the one 
versity of Cambridge, pointed the way. Prof. Maxwell, in he 
masterly work on electricity and magnetism, which appeared in 
1873, has built a monument to Faraday, and unconsciously tO 
imself also, out of the strongest mathematics. For forty yoo 
mathematicians and physicists had labored to associate the laws 
of electrostatics and electrodynamics under some more general en 
pression. An early attempt was made by Gauss in 1835, but his 
process was published, for the first time, in the recent complete 


edition of his works. Maxwell objects to the formula of Gauss OF. | 
Webers 


cause it violates the law of the conservation of energy- 
method was made known in 1846 ; but it has not escaped the cr 


cism of Helmholtz. It represents faithfully the laws of _ . | 
tioof 


and the facts of induction, and led Weber to an absolute me 
ment of the electrostatic and electromagnetic units. The 
these units, according to the formulas, is a velocity ; an As 
ment shows that this velocity is equal to the velocity of light 
Weber's theory starts with the conception of action at & d 


and experi 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 651 


without any mediation, the effect would be instantaneous, and we 
are at a loss to discover the physical meaning which he attaches 
to his velocity. Gauss abandoned his researches in electromag- 
hetism because he could not satisfy his mind in regard to the 
propagation of its influence in time. Other mathematicians have 
Worked for a solution, but have lost themselves in a cloud of mathe- 
_ Matical abstraction. The two theories of light have exhausted all 
imaginable ways in which force can be gradually transmitted 
without increase or loss of energy. Maxwell cut the Gordian 
knot when he selected the luminiferous ether itself as the arena 
on which to marshal the electromagnetic forces under the symbols 
of his mathematics, and made light a variety of electromagnetic 
— Action. His analysis gave a velocity essentially the same as that 
_ Of Weber, with the advantage of being a physical reality and not 
= à mere ratio. Of the two volumes of Mr. Maxwell, freighted 
with the richest and heaviest cargo, the reviewer says: ‘* Their 
author has, as it were, flown at everything: and, with immense 
spread of wing and power of beak, he has hunted down his vic- 
tims in all quarters, and from each has extracted something new 
and interesting for the intellectual nourishment of his readers.” 
Gear physical views must precede the application of mathematics 
to any subject. Maxwell and Thomson are liberal in their ac- 
Knowledgments to Faraday. Mr. Thomson says: “Faraday, 
Without mathematics, divined the result of the mathematical inves- 
tigation; and, what has proved of infinite value to the mathema- 
ticians themselves, he has given them an articulate language in 
_ Which to express their results. Indeed, the whole language of the 
magnetic field and lines of force is Faraday’s. It must be said 
for the mathematicians that they greedily accepted it, and have 
ever since been most zealous in using it to the best advantage.” 
It is not expected that the new views of physics will be gen- 
erally accepted without vigorous opposition. A large amount of 


a ts, and it disenthralls the theories of science from many 
_ Metaphysical difficulties which weigh heavily on some minds. On 
_ ‘Me other hand, the style of mathematics which the innovation 
ces is novel and complex; and good ‘mathematicians may 
Mar necessary to go to school again before they can read and 
_ ‘mderstand the strange analysis. It is feared that with many who 


652 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


are not easily deflected from the old ruts, the intricacies of the 
new mathematics will outweigh the superiority of the new physics. 
The old question, in regard to the nature of gravitation, was 
never settled: it was simply dropped. Now it is revived with as 
much earnestness as ever, and with more intelligence. Astronomy 
cast in its own mould the original theories of electrical and mag- 
netic action. The revolution in electricity and magnetism must 
necessarily react upon astronomy. It was proved by Laplace, 
from data which would now, probably, require a numerical correc- 
tion, that the velocity of the force of gravitation could not be 
less than eight million times the velocity of light; in fact, that it 
was infinite. Those who believe in action at a distance cannot 
properly speak of the transmission of gravitation. Force can be 
transmitted only by matter: either with it or through it. Ac- 
cording to their view, action at a distance is the force, and it 
admits of no other illustration, explanation, or analysis. Itis not 
surprising that Faraday and others, who had lost their faith in 
action at short distances, should have been completely staggered 
by the ordinary interpretation of the law of gravitation, and that 
they declared the clause which asserted that the force diminished 
with the square of the distance to be a violation of the princi- 
ple of the conservation of force. ; ` 
Must we then content ourselves with the naked facts of gravita- 
tion, as Comte did, or is it possible to resolve them into a mode of 
action in harmony with our general experience, and which does 
not shock our conceptions of matter and force? In 1798, Count 


being mutually screened from this bombardment. 

to this hypothesis, which introduced Lucretius into the | 
Newton and his followers, that the collision of atoms wit 
and with planets, would cause a secular diminution in the 


h atoms, 
force of 


Sr aes me CEI OT BR PPE AAA AE ig a hele eee ah ENES Sear) aie ES EE anh ET FINA N lea oa 
: = eae rf aad MU Ca Sige: ee i z = i = Sc eet Neds 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 653 


gravity. Le Sage admitted the fact. But as no one knew that 
the solar system was eternal, the objection was not fatal. As the 
necessity for giving a mechanical account of gravitation was not 
generally felt at the time, the theory of Le Sage fell into oblivion. 
n 1873, Sir William Thomson resuscitated and republished it. 
He has fitted it out in a fashionable dress, made out of elastic 
molecules instead of hard atoms, and has satisfied himself that it 
is consistent with modern thermo-dynamics and a perennial gravi- 
tation. 


Let us now look in a wholly different quarter for the mechanical 
origin of gravitation. In 1870, Prof. Guthrie gave an account of 
a novel experiment, viz:—the attraction of a light body by a 
tuning-fork when it was set in vibration. Thomson repeated the 
experiment upon a suspended eggshell and attracted it by a simple 
wave of the hand. Thomson remarks “that what gave the great 
charm to these investigations, for Mr. Guthrie himself, and no 
doubt also for many of those who heard his expositions and saw 
his experiments, was, that the results belong to a class of phe- 
homena to which we may hopefully look for discovering the mech- 


= 4nism of magnetic force, and possibly also the mechanism by 


Which the forces of electricity and gravity are transmitted.” By 
a delicate mathematical analysis, Thomson arrives at the theorem 
that the “average pressure at any point of an incompressible, 


frictionless fluid, originally at rest, but set in motion and kept in 


Motion by solids, moving to and fro, or whirling round in any 
Manner, through a finite space of it,” would explain the attractions 
just described. Moreover, he is persuaded by other effects besides 
those of. light, that, in the interplanetary spaees and in the best 
artificial vacuum, the medium which remains has “perfectly de- 
cided mechanical qualities, and, among others, that of being able 
to transmit mechanical energy, in enormous quantities :” and he 
cherishes the hope that his mathematical theorems on abstract 
hydrokinetics are of some interest in physics as illustrating the 
steat question of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries :—Is 
action at a distance a reality, or is gravitation to be explained, as 


We now believe magnetic and electric forces must be, by action of 


intervening matter? 

` In 1869 and 1873, Prof. Challis of Cambridge, England, pub- 
lished two works on the Principles of Mathematical Physics. 
They embody the mature reflexions of a mathematical physicist 


654 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


at the advanced age of threescore years and ten. Challis be- 
lieves that there is sufficient evidence for the existence of ether 
and atomsas physical realities. He then proceeds to say :—‘ The 
fundamental and only admissible idea of force is that of pressure, 
exerted either actively by the ether against the surface of the 
atoms, or as reaction of the atoms on the ether by resistance to 
that pressure. The principle of deriving fundamental physical 
conceptions from the indications of the senses does not admit of 
regarding gravity, or any other force varying with distance, as an 
essential quality of matter, because, according to that principle, 
we must, in seeking for the simplest idea of physical force, have 
regard to the sense of touch. Now, by this sense, we obtain a 
perception of force as pressure, distinct and unique, and not in- 
volving the variable element of distance, which enters into the 
perception of force as derived from the sense of sight alone. 
Thus, on the ground of simplicity as well as of distinct percepti- 
bility, the fundamental idea of force is pressure.” As a other 
matter is passive except when acted upon by the ether, the ether 
itself, in its quiescent state, must have uniform density. It must 
be coextensive with the vast regions in which material force 18 
displayed. Challis had prepared himself for the elucidation and 
defence of his dynamical theory by a profound study of the laws 
of motion in elastic fluids. From the mathematical forms IM 
which he has expressed these laws he has attempted to derive u 
principal experimental results in light, heat, gravitation, electricity, 
and magnetism. Some may think that Mr. Challis has done 
nothing but clothe his theory in the cast off garments of an oh 
lete philosophy. If its dress is old, it walks upon new legs- i” 
interplay between ether and atoms is now brought on to the m 
not as a speculation supported by metaphysical and theologi 

arguments, but as a physical reality with mathematical supports: 
I should do great injustice to this author if I left the impression 
that he himself claimed to have covered the whole ground of his 


system by proof. Mathematical difficulties prevented him Oe 


: ‘ e of 
reaching a numerical value for the resultant action of & Wav 


ether upon the atom. What he has written is the guidepoth 
pointing the direction in which science is next to travel : ages 
end of the journey is yet a great way off. The repeated P we bis 
of Mr. Challis against the popular physics of the day; and 

bold proclamation of the native, independent motion of the «77? 


5 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 655 


have aroused criticism. What prevents the free ether, asks the 
late Sir John Herschel, from expanding into infinite space? Mr. 
Challis replies that we know nothing about infinite space or what 
happens there, but the existence of the ether, where our experi- 
ence can follow it, is a physical reality. The source of the mo- 
tion which the ether acquires is not the sun: for the most efficient 
cause of solar radiation is gravitation and condensation. Our 
author avoids the vicious circle of making gravitation, first the 
reason and afterwards the consequence of the motion of the ether. 
He says: “It follows that the sun’s heat, and the heat of masses 
in general, are stable quantities, oscillating, it may be, like the 
planetary motions, about mean values, but never permanently 
changing, so long as the Upholder of the universe conserves the . 
force of the ether and the qualities of the atoms. There is no law 
of destructibility : but the same Will that conserves can in a mo- 
ment destroy.” The following remarks upon this theory deserve 
our attention. The explanation of any action between distant 

ies by means of a clearly conceivable process, going on in the 
intervening medium, is an achievement of the highest scientific 
value. Of all such actions that of gravitation is the most univer- 
sal and the most mysterious. Whatever theory of the constitu- 
tion of bodies holds out a prospect of the ultimate explanation of 
the process by which gravitation is effected, men of science will 
be found read y to devote the whole remainder of their lives to the 
development of that theory.” 

the hypotheses of Challis and Le Sage have one thing in com- 
_ Mon; the motion of the ether and the driving storm of atoms 
_ Must come from outside the world of stars. ‘On either theory, 
the universe is not even temporarily automatic, but must be fed 
_ om moment to moment by an agency external to itself.” Our 
= Science is not a finality. The material order which we are said to 
a ‘now makes heavy drafts upon an older or remoter one, and that 
Again upon a third. The world, as science looks at it, is not self- 
“ustaining. We may abandon the hope of explaining gravitation, 
And make attraction itself the primordial cause. Our refuge 
‘Sin the sun. When we qualify the conservation of energy by 
: the dissipation of energy, the last of which is as much an induc- 
“on of science as the first, the material fabric which we have 
. ‘Constructed still demands outward support. Thomson calculates 
that, within the historical period, the sun has emitted hundreds of 


658 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


which held them. The discovery that heat was a motion and not 
a substance, foreshadowed by Bacon, made probable by Rumford 
and Davy, and rigidly proved by Mayer and Joule when they ob- 
tained its exact mechanical equivalent, opened the way to the 
dynamical theory of gases. Joule calculated the velocity of this 
promiscuous artillery, rendered harmless by the minuteness of the 
missiles, and found that the boasted guns of modern warfare could 
not compete with it. Clausius consummated the kinetic theory of 
gases by his powerful mathematics, and derived from it the exper- 
imental laws of Mariotte, Gay-Lussac and Charles. By the as- 
sumption of data, more or less plausible, several mathematicians 
have succeeded in computing the sizes and the masses of the mol- 
ecules and some of the elements of their motion. It should not 
be forgotten that mathematical analysis is only a rigid system of 
logic by which wrong premises conduct the more surely to an in- 
correct conclusion. To claim for all the conclusions which have 
been published in relation to the molecules the certainty which 
fairly belongs to some of them would prejudice the whole cause. 

One of the most interesting investigations in molecular me 
chanics was published by Helmholtz in 1858. It is a mathemati- 


cal discussion of what he calls ring-vortices in a perfect, friction- 


less fluid. Helmholtz has demonstrated that such vortices possess 


a perpetuity and an inviolability once thought to be realized only 
‘by the eternal atoms. The ring-vortices may hustle one another, 


d 


and pass through endless transformations, but they cannot be 


broken or stopped. Thomson seized upon them as the imperson- 
ation of the indestructible but plastic molecule which he was 
looking for, to satisfy the present condition of physical papes 
The element of the new physics is not an atom or a congeries of 
atoms but a whirling vapor. The molecules of the same substance 
have one invariable and unchangeable mass: they are all tuned to 
one standard pitch and, when incandescent, emit the same kind of 
light. The music of the spheres has left the heavens and conde- 
scended to the rhythmic molecules. There is here no bir 
or variation of species. If other masses than the precise ones 
represent the elements have been eliminated, where, asks #8 
well, have they gone? The spectroscope does not show them 5 
the stars or nebulæ. The hydrogen and sodium of remotest space 
are in unison with the hydrogen and sodium of earth. 

In the phraseology of our mechanics we define matter and fore? 


th or death 
which 


- 


ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 659 


as if they had an independent existence. But we have no con- 
ception of inert matter or of disembodied force. All we know of 
matter is its pressure and its motion. The old atom had only 
potential energy; the energy of its substitute, the molecule, is 
partly potential and partly kinetic. If it could be shown that all 
the phenomena displayed in the physical world were simply trans- 
mutations of the original energy existing in the molecules, phys- 
ical science would be satisfied. Where physical science ends, 
natural philosophy, which is not wholly exploded from our vocab- 
ulary, begins. Natural philosophy can give no account of energy 
When disconnected with an ever present Intelligence and Will. 
In Herschel’s beautiful dialogue on atoms, after one of the speak- 
ers had explained all the wonderful exhibitions of nature as the 
work of natural forces, Hermione replies : —‘* Wonderful, indeed ! 
Anyhow, they must have not only good memories but astonishing 
Presence of mind, to be always ready to act, and always to act, 
Without mistake, according to the primary laws of their being, in 
every complication that occurs.” And elsewhere, “ Action, with- 
out will or effort, is to us, constituted as we are, unrealizable, 
unknowable, inconceivable.” . The monads of Leibnitz and the 
mons of Maxwell express in words the personality implied in 
every manifestation of force. 

In this imperfect sketch of the increased resources and the 
Present attitude of the physical sciences I have not aimed to speak 
as an advocate; much less to sit as a judge. The great problem 
of the day is, how to subject all physical phenomena to dynamical 
laws. With all the experimental devices, and all the mathematical 
appliances of this generation, the human mind has been baffle in 


__ Its attempts to construct a universal science of physics. But 


_ hothing will discourage it. When foiled in one direction, it will 


attack in another. Science is not destructive, but progressive. 
While its theories change, the facts remain. Its generalizations 


"e widening and deepening from age to age. We may extend to 


4 the theories of physical science the remark of Grote which 
Challis quotes in favor of his own :— “its fruitfulness is its cor- 


-Teetibility.” Instead of being disheartened by difficulties, the 
— mue man of science will congratulate himself in the words of 
a enargues, that he lives in a world fertile in obstacles. Im- 


Mortality would be no boon if there were not something left to 


“cover as well as to love. Fortunate, thought Fontenelle, was 


660 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 


Newton, beyond all other men, in having a whole fresh universe 
before him, waiting for an explanation. But science wants no 
Alexanders weeping because there are not other worlds to conquer. 
For every heroic Columbus, who launches forth, in however frail a 
bark, upon untried oceans, seeing before him rich continents 
where others behold only a wilderness of waters, there are prec- 
ious discoveries in reserve. Surely the time has not yet come 
when the men in any section in this Association can fold their 
arms and say :— It is finished. Unless our physicists are con- 
tented to lag behind and gather up the crumbs which fall from the 
‘rich laboratories and studies of Europe, they must unite to deli- 
cate manipulation the power of mathematical analysis. Mathe- 
matics wins victories where experiment has been beaten. With 
good reason we applaud the many brilliant successes of instru- 
mental research.. Mathematical analysis, with its multitudinous 
adaptations, is the only key which will fit the most intricate wards 
in the treasury of science. With the help of her mathematical 
physicists, Great Britain has now taken a position in science 
which she has not held before since the days of Newton. In 
Germany, the physicists do not hold back from the most difficult 
problems of the day, because they are led along by experiment 
on one arm and by mathematics on the other. The zeal of the 
Italian scientists prevails, over even the terrors of Vesuvius, 
makes them ready to become martyrs, like Pliny the elder, to 
nature and humanity. France, too, out of the very ashes of her 
humiliation, sends an inspiring word to us. Since her defeat, her 
scientific spirit has been aroused as it was after the days of the 
first revolution. Her Association for the Advancement of Science 
is only a two year old infant; but it has sprung into existen®® 
like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, fullgrown and equipped: 
Already it has displayed a vitality and a prosperity which this 
Association, in its opening manhood, has not yet acquired. The 
words of its first President are as true for the United States 9° m 
France :— that the strength and glory of a country are not I its 
- arms but in its science. ; 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES.* II. 
BY DR. AUGUSTUS WEISSMANN. 


WE now attempt to consider morphologically the phenomena of 
the development of the Muscidae, as discussed in the foregoing 
chapters. In the first place, the theories above laid down seem to 
be thoroughly established, 7. e. that we have in the metamorphosis 
of the flies nothing to do with a simple change of skin. Indeed, 
the additional metamorphosis is accompanied by a casting aside 
and new formation of the chitinous framework which underlies 
the body, but this has a very subordinate signification. -The sys- 
tems of organs of the larva disappear simultaneously, it may be 
completely, it may be only histologically; and out of the frag- 
ments the tissues build up a new body. It is a matter of doubt 
Whether to consider the larva and pupa as one and the same indi- 
vidual, or whether we have not in reality an alternation of genera- 
tions. I think that those who speak of a metagenesis in certain 
Echinoderms should regard this also as such, if with V. Carus,t 
We consider metamorphosis as a series of developments in which 
the animal, during a certain stage in its development, is provided 
with provisional organs; but metagenesis as that in which this 
Whole developmental stage itself (Amme) must be considered as a 
Provisional one, so that it readily follows that the system of organs 
of the larva taken collectively is provisional, or in other words, 
that the larva itself is a provisional stage, while the fly must be 
considered as a new individual; such process taking rank as an 
alternation of generations. At all events from the Plateus-form 

Va new organs arise in the sea star, as from the larva in the fly. 
There is the alimentary canal and the water vascular system, which 
last, though in a plainly undeveloped condition, is already par- 
tially developed in the larva. Here we have, except the hypo- 
derm of the abdominal segments of the larva, no parts which pass 
into the pupa without previously undergoing a total revolution. 
The alimentary canal and the water-vascular system of the Echino- 
E eee een 


Forming the closing chapter in “ Die Entwicklung der Dipteren,” 1864. 
tSystem der thierischen Morphologie, Leipzig, 1853, p- (661) 


662 THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 


derm larva at no time perform their function; they continue to 
develop more perfectly; they grow more complicated in their 
structure ; they throw off their parts singly; they only hold in 
reserve their histological structure in order to become physiolog- 
ically capable of performing their functions. 

In the Muscidz, on the contrary, each organ of the larva does 
not become entirely lost, though bordering upon a histolysis, i. e. 
becoming functionally incapable, their histological elements dis- 
solve themselves into a blastema, from which a new histological 
element must arise. The only difference from the total destruc- 
tion, such as befalls the muscles, the fat bodies, etc., is this, that 
the destruction of tissues here becomes a continuous process, and 
the new organs are built up out of the same material which com- 
posed the old ones. This obtains in the intestine, the nervous 
system and the dorsal vessel. But a surprising analogy to the 
development of the Echinoderm occurs in the formation of the 
imaginal disks. As the body of the Echinoderm selects at several 
points around the alimentary canal of the larva indifferent cell 
masses, and then all unite and consolidate into a single mass, 8° 
arise at different places within the body of the fly larva—heré 
still in genetic relation with the organs of the larva — masses of 
indifferent cells, which become differentiated in the course of the 
development of the different parts of the imago, and become trans 
formed into a common whole. It cannot be considered as aN 
essential deviation, that in the Pluteus larva these cell masses ar? 
formed during the life of the larva, while in the muscid larva they 
are formed before that, in the egg; and this deviation occurs to 
such a slight extent, as we have seen above, that a pair of the 
formative disks, those out of which the upper half of the p1% 
thorax is formed, here makes an exception, and is only developed 
shortly before the pupation. -Had we considered the formation o 
the cell masses of the Echinoderm larva as buds, then for 4 still 
stronger reason is the formation of the imaginal disks of the Mus- 
cidæ a budding process. They are outgrowths of the tegai 
tary membrane of the nerves and tracheæ of tissues, which, ; 
they are not histologically, are yet physiologically equivalents to 
the complete fibrous tissues of the vertebrates. Both tissues i 
essentially derived from an amorphous, fundamental sib 
which seems to have the capabilities which the more recent studie 


in histology ascribe to the peculiar restorative quality of the com 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 663 


nective tissue of vertebrates, i. e. of building up cells, and of re- 
turning to that from which it originated. 

I find it generally true that the nuclei lying near a recent disk 
become metamorphosed into disk-forming cells; tha‘ they sur- 
round themselves with cells, and multiply like the other disk-cells. 
Such a process may be seen in the exceptionally late appearance 
of the upper prothoracic disks. These disks are already formed 
in the egg out of the embryo cells,—out of the same material as 
the tegumentary membrane with which they develop. They could 
only in an ideal sense be regarded as outgrowths of this tegu- 
mentary membrane; so the upper prothoracic disks-are, in reality, 
nothing but outgrowths. The nuclei of the peritoneal skin form 
cells, and increase in number, constituting the disks. We have here’ 
a bud which scarcely differs from the buds which are concerned 
in the formation of new stigmata in the first moulting of the larva, 
and we should almost err in considering the morphological value 
of this disk to regard it as a true imaginal disk ; it should at least 
not be compared with those of the free Tipulide larve, in which 
they have a by far more complicated structure, while they are con- 
siderably larger, and are indicated contemporaneously with the 
formation of the other disks of the thorax. 

As I cannot agree with that opinion which regards the well- 
known metamorphosis of Echinoderms as a metagenesis, so am I 
Still far from proposing that there is such a metamorphosis in the 
Muscide. We must certainly, with V. Carus and J. Müller, con- 
Sider it in this respect as irrelevant whether the nurse produces 
one or more germs (in a monogenous way); whether the animal 
rowing from the egg develops into a sexual form, or whether it, 
not capable of that, at the end of its development produces germs 
(buds) which build up a sexual animal; or whether the series of 


developmental forms from the embryo up to the sexually ripe 


animal end in one or two individuals. The answer in both cases 
seems to me not doubtful. In the Echinoderms as in the Muscide 
We have to deal with a metamorphosis, not with an alternation 
of generations. Larva and sexually mature animal are one and 
the same individual. In the Echinoderms it seems to me this is 
evident in that the internal organs (intestine and water canal sys- 
tem) are present, and without any interruption of their functions 


_ Pass over from the larval stage to the adult sea star; so that a 


single germ will not from the beginning pass by gradual differen- 


664 THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 


tiation into the perfected animal, but rather distinct accumulations 
of cells take place and in the course of development give rise to 
the new “individual.” 

But in the flies there is another fact which compels us to look 
upon the larva and pupa as a single individual, however slight 
may be the community in organs and external form between the 
two developmental stages. It is this circumstance that the same 
mass of organized substance constitutes the body of the growing 
larva, as of the fly. During the metamorphosis no growth takes 
place. The larval skin is thrown off, the insect forms a case 
around itself beneath whose shelter it remains and builds up the 
final form of the perfect insect. It takes in or gives out products 
of combustion of the still unceasing process of respiration. We 
have ina manner a second egg-development, and as we consider 
egg and larva as a single individual, so must the pupa, though not 
containing the undeveloped larva as a yolk, be considered as one 
and the same individual. But it does not happen that there is no 
stage in the development of the pupa in which the larval organs 
are not present; though the organs of flight are indeed newly 
formed, the exclusion of the larval body does not take place sud- 
denly, but very gradually it grows parallel with a whole series of 
formations of new structures. Larva and fly overlap each other. 
There can be no doubt that they are one and the same individual ; 
that their development also is to be considered as a metamor- 
phosis. rae 

It is still the most complete metamorphosis conceivable which 
we find in the Muscide, far more complete—I do not profess to 
speak from more recent observations— than, for example, the met- 
amorphosis of the Lepidoptera. The destruction of the larv 
organs is in the Lepidoptera much less complete, as the lepidop- 
terous pupa has the power of moving its hind-body. The muscles 
of the larval segments concerned in the movements seem tor 
main, and the nervous power is not interrupted ; there is a poe 
munication between the nervous centre and the organism 5 = 
consciousness of the animal remains, it reacts on stimulation. A s 
cording to Herold the pulsation of the dorsal vessel goes 0M oul 
pupa in short ceases not for a moment to be a living being; 
the life of the Muscid is as latent as that of the fertilized e388 

Through the transfer of many organs of the larva into the 
there is less need of the rebuilding of parts. I find that even 


TSAR RNG SES Ear ee SS Ee ae foes x cor ees 


ae MEP RIE Bere oT A tp eee Ree Fe 


Brats eee eee hee een ee eae eee Te gee 


Sg eS eet ge eh eee 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 665 


the Lepidoptera the origin of the thoraz is from the hypodermis of 
the larva; that no thoracic disks are developed within the body, 
but that the appendages of the thoracic segments grow by a direct 
metamorphosis from the limbs. The wings alone have a special 
mode of development and in a very peculiar way. 

I think that the kind and mode of formation of the thorax in 
the pupa of insects have the closest connection with, at first sight, 
a very subordinate circumstance, the presence or absence of true 
limbs in the larva. T think, that especially where the three segments 
of the larva immediately following the head bear appendages, the 
corresponding appendages—the legs—of the adult insect, are formed 

a simple metamorphosis; while on the other hand, when these 
limbs are wanting in the larva, there are found thoracic scales within 
the body of the larva ; and not only the appendages but also the walls 
of the body are new structures. e 

All my observations, new and old, agree with this view ; among 
others the earlier observations on the larva of the gnat, already 
Spoken of, which have only anal limbs, but no typical segmental 
appendages, and in which the structure of the thorax is the same 
as in the Muscidæ. 

When it is said that the life of the insect is latent in the pupa, 
that the usual functions of animal life, such as motion and sensi- 
bility are wanting, I might speak of the Muscidæ alone, and say 
this of all insects with a similar mode of formation of the thorax. 
There comes into consideration here, not only the greater or less 
independence of development, the more or less marked absence of 
the larval organs, but also the period of the formation of the pupa. 
In the Tipulid larva, noticed above, the larval and pupal states are 
more intimately blended than in the Muscids. The thorax and 

ead of the pupa are already fully formed, while the larva is ac- 
tively swimming about. When the larva skin is cast off i the 
muscles of the pupa are already at work; the functions of animal 
life suffer no interruption. 

But in the Muscidæ the loss of the larval parts precedes the 
formation of the body of the pupa. Hence we perceive no mo- 
tion, and in fact the animal life is latent. The circulation of the 


~ blood ceases, the peripheral nervous system is destroyed, and the 
Central system loses any power of action; at the same time all 


the inner organs become incapable of farther functional condi- 
- The development of new systems of organs begins with 


666 THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 


the rise of indifferent cells in the mass to be sloughed off, much 
as happens in the formation of the blastoderm in the egg. This 
renewal of the structure is seen in a measure in the internal or- 
gans. We can distinguish four modes of development, according 
to which the parts of the fly originate. Either certain parts of the 
larvæ become persistent, under modification, or the larval organs 
become a foundation for the parts of a fly, but are thrown off, cell 
by cell, ere they assume a definite character. The third and last 
kind is when an entirely new development of parts takes place, 
the beginning of which either dates at the embryonic or larval 
period or at the close of the pupa state. 

Let us consider this single mode of development more closely 
as regards the direct transfer of the larval parts alone from the 
hypodermis of the eight hinder larval segments, which are after- 
wards developed into the abdomen of the fly. The second mode 
occurs in the alimentary canal, the Malpighian vessels, with the 
dorsal vessel and the central part of the nervous system. The 
same process is observed in all these organs, that of their removal, 
cell by cell, with a succeeding new development. I might term it 
a histolysis. The histological elements of the organ—simple as 
well as compound—suffer a fatty degeneration; there remains & 
residuary mass filled mostly with fat molecules. In the nervous 
centres and Malpighian vessels the nuclei of the cells become pèr- 
sistent, and perhaps give rise to the development of new histo- 
logical elements; whether this persistent mass deports itself like 
the alimentary canal, or whether after its destruction it retains the 
nuclei, must remain undetermined, nevertheless this same mass, 
which had composed the former organs, serves to build up anew the 
new ones. The products resulting from this destruction of organs 
are not wholly dispersed, but remain together and so receive ih 
form of organs in their totality, even if no single histological 
element remain. 

We must here leave undetermined how the cells which are to 
form the new organs originate, though this cannot be doubtful as 
regards the last two modes of development of the parts of os 
imago. They undergo a completely new development, i. e. of al 
those parts which are not generally present in the larva, yo are 
not in their complete state of functional activity. In this last 
category belongs the thorax and head of the fly and their append- 
ages, also those parts of the imago which arise from the disks; 


ENGLISH SPARROWS. 667 


also the genital glands. With a single exception all these parts 
are already formed in the egg, their cells also arise directly from 
the cells of the embryo, and in the upper prothoracie disks, which 
are afterwards formed, there is still a continuity between the em- 
bryonal cells and those of the disks if still indirect, through the 
mediation of the nuclei of the peritoneal membrane surrounding 
the tracheze. 

It is well to remark —and it is based on a grand plan in the de- 
velopment of the imago—that only the walls of the parts referred 
to arise from the formative disks, the skin alone and not the mus- 
cles. These last owe their origin to a new process of cell forma- 
tion which generally obtains in the last half of the period of pu- 
pation, and gives the material for the development of the inner 
organs still wanting, the trachese, nerves, the fat body of the fly, 
and the genital armature. I have sought to call attention to the 
fact that we are dealing with a “free” cell formation, i. e., that 
the newly formed cells arise directly or indirectly from cells. In 
the early part of these researches it was proved that the first cells 
in the fertilized egg show a process of free cell formation, arising 
independently from some previous formative element. An objec- 
tion to this could be raised, that we have to do with an endog- 
€nous cell growth, while the whole egg should be considered as a 
cell. It is clearly shown to be in agreement with the earlier ob- 
Servations of Stein and Lubbock, that the insect egg is not the 
equivalent of a single cell, but is composed of a number of cells. 
Should this objection be laid aside, then a similar objection in the 
cell growth of the inner parts of the pupa could not arise, and if 
the relation be proved by fresh observations, then there may be a 
free cell growth in the living organism. 


( 


ENGLISH SPARROWS. 


BY THOMAS G. GENTRY. 


IN the September issue of the NaruraLisT, Dr. Brewer reviews 
lg Considerable length a small article which appeared in a previous 


_ umber, from the pen of Dr. Coues, concerning the European 


668 _ ENGLISH SPARROWS. 


house sparrow. He accuses the latter of entertaining feelings of 
prejudice against the sparrows, and of being ‘‘ apparently only too 
glad to condemn them on the scantiest evidence.’ 

After a careful perusal of what Dr. Coues has written, I must 
confess that I am utterly unable to see how such a construction as 
Dr. Brewer’s could be forced upon it. In the article to which ref 
erence has been made, Dr. Coues says, “I have always been op- 
posed to the introduction of the birds, mainly on this score, also 
for other reasons.” What the other reasons are, it is not my 
province to divine; but it is sufficiently obvious from a clause of 
the above quotation, that his opposition to them was not founded 
upon imaginary wrongs which he supposed they would commit, but 
upon. knowledge either gained by personal observation or that had 
been communicated to him by others. He was undoubtedly in 
possession of evidence similar to mine, at the date of the latter’s 
reception. 

By referring to page 146 of the ‘Key,’ I find that he mani- . 
fested considerable concern about the results which would a 
dently follow the overflowing of municipal limits by the species, 
when the latter should come in contact with our native birds. 
Here it is difficult to resist the conclusion, that the knowledge 
which he possessed at the time of writing the “Key,” afforded a 
sufficient warrant for what he said, and furnished the ground for 
his anxiety. Dr. Coues is too careful an observer and recorder 
of facts to pen an article without having taken the precaution to 
intrench himself securely against assault. From the evidence 
submitted it is clear that the charge of prejudice which has been 
preferred against him, is not sustained. 

Leaving the learned doctor to defend himself, in his own able 
manner, which I am assured he will not hesitate to do, . regard 
for my own feeble reputation, compels me to pen a few lines de- 
nunciatory of the charge of misrepresentation which Dr. Brewer 
has imputed to me, as implied in his review. The Doctor says 
in language not to be miscomprehended, that he « entirely ue 
credits” my statement, assigning as the reason, that he does 
believe that “ the habits of either the house sparrow, or the agate 
blue bird, or the native sparrows, are different in Pennsy Įvams 
from what they are in Massachusetts.” What I see with of 
natural eye is evidence of belief. I am not prone to 4 — 
“double vision,” but generally observe things as they really ex1 


Se ae eee eee ee Le 


ENGLISH SPARROWS. 669 


I have never visited Massachusetts for the purpose of. studying 
the habits of its birds, but have derived considerable knowledge 
thereof, from the writings of its ablest sons, and can fearlessly 
aver, that either they have failed to represent the facts as they found 
them, or else perceptible differences exist. I do not wish to be 
understood as imputing the charge of misrepresentation to them, 
but only to show that my experience in eastern Pennsylvania has 
been of such a character as to prove beyond dispute the existence 
of differences of habit. A multitude of circumstances exist to 
vary the habits of a species. A single circumstance occasionally 
suffices: but, generally, a combination is necessary to determine 
variation. The introduction of a new species in a given locality, 
in its struggle for existence, will often have a tendency to place 
anew aspect upon affairs. Rapidity of multiplication, and a con- 
sequent increase of numbers, will often make up for lack of indi- 
vidual courage ;—for in union there is strength. Birds that are 
proverbial for courage will often betray feelings of cowardice, and 
yield when beset by fearful odds. 

Ever since the introduction of the sparrows into our own city, 
I have been a close observer of their ways, and have watched their 
rapid increase and steady diffusion, with feelings of fear, lest 
coming into contact with our smaller birds, they would compel 
the latter to seek quarters elsewhere. This suspicion has been 
latterly confirmed. On the outskirts of Germantown, and even 
in the groves which surround niany of our palatial residences, 
Where the house sparrow has intruded, the robin, sparrows and 
blue bird, our most welcome guests, but occasionally greet us 
With their presence and voices. To be sure there are places where 
these denizens of foreign birth have not disarranged the quiet and 
harmony that once pervaded our groves and fields uninterrupted 
as they were save by an occasional breach of trust. 

The members of a family that quarrel among each other will 
often exhibit the same unenviable trait of character towards out- 
Siders. In the breeding season, Dr. Brewer admits that the males 
are exceedingly pugnacious, but only when actuated by amatory 
Influence. Granting this for the sake of argument, is it not a 


-Feasonable presumption that while these influences endure, the 


Passions being wrought up to a high pitch of excitement, the 
Casual appearance of a stranger on the scene would be miscon- 


¢ Strued as an act of interference, and the force of infuriated indig- 


670 ENGLISH SPARROWS. 


nation be wreaked upon the innocent intruder. This would cause 
the former source of trouble to be forgotten for the time being; a 
feeling of love and good will to prevail, and. the united strength 
of several to be centred upon an apparently common foe. 

A supposed case of this kind would seem to admit of no other 
explanation. Here would be the starting-point for that enmity 
which I know to exist between this species and our smaller birds 
in certain localities. As years roll on it will gradually strengthen 
and increase. Just such facts as this supposed case calls for, in 
order to lead to a satisfactory conclusion, fell under my imme- 
diate observation during the early days of last spring. 

Our smaller birds were just as abundant then, as in former 
years, and, as far as I was able to determine, the circumstances by 
which they were environed were materially the same. In places 
not as yet overrun by the house sparrows, apparently circum- 
stanced similarly, our native species build as freely as ever. 
But there are spots not a few in number, where year after year I 
have wended in my ornithological pilgrimages, and returned with 
a rich harvest ; but latterly, they have been deserted, and the fa- 
miliar forms and voices I once loved to greet have gone, and 
strangers now occupy their loved retreats. 

I have known instances where our smaller birds have commenced 
nest-building, and on the appearance of the sparrows have beet 
compelled to beat a precipitate retreat. 

` What I have thus detailed at length, has been the experience of 
others. Mr. Abel Willis of Germantown informs me that the 
robins and sparrows were frequent visitors upon his father’s prem- 
ises in early spring, and were wont to build upon the bushes and 
trees that occupy the lawn, for several years in succession. This 
last year they came as usual, but the house sparrows had pren 
pied all the available places. Displeased with such presumption, 
they were not disposed to yield quietly, but set about to expel the 
intruders ; and in the encounter, being outnumbered, were obliged 
to emigrate to other quarters. 

Repeatedly they renewed their endeavors, but were as often 
defeated. per 

In the cavity of an old apple tree in Mr. Willis’s yard, a pa't 
of the imported sparrows built a nest early in April last, = 
which ‘time they have successfully reared three broods of " ” 
and were engaged in preparing for a fourth, when the stump 


ENGLISH SPARROWS. 671 


which they occupied was severed from the trunk by the writer’s 
request, and deposited in his collections. The birds were suc- 
cessful in bringing to maturity a family of twelve children. Mr. 
Willis informs me that the robins and sparrows were frequent vis- 
itors to the tree during the early part of the season, and their 
movements seemed to indicate a desire to build; but the coming 
of the house sparrows was the cause of a dispute in which the rob- 
ins and our native sparrows were compelled to yield, and look for 
suitable quarters élsewhere. While engaged in nidification and 
incubation, he further informed me, not a bird is permitted to 
approach within ten paces of the nest, for the male is ever on the 
alert for intruders, and wreaks instant vengeance upon their te- 
merity. The tree which held the nest being in close proximity to 
his residence, sitting within his back door, he could command a 
full view of the surrounding prospect, and observe every manœuvre 
of the sparrows. He had witnessed frequent encounters between 
the innocent sparrows and the robins and our native sparrows, and 
always noticed that the former were the aggressors. At the time 
of writing-the sparrows still continue to visit the old apple tree, 
the scene of their former joys and pleasures. 

The editor of the “ Weekly Guide” of Germantown, last spring 
published the observations of several of our most prominent citi- 
zens, bearing upon this subject, in which were stated facts similar 
to what have been detailed. In the cases to which he referred, 
the sparrows were always the aggressive party, and what indi- 
Vidual courage and strength failed to accomplish, was brought 
about through the medium of numbers. Instances were cited where 
the robins and blue birds were beset by numbers of the sparrows, 
and were completely banished from sites rendered dear and sacred 
by past associations and recollections. What our citizens partic- 
ularly bewail is the utter repugnance which the sparrows mani- 
fest towards our smaller species. In certain localities referred to 
in the above publication, the sparrows had taken complete pos- 
Session, and the familiar forms and voices of the song and chip- 
Ping sparrows, the robin and blue bird, are recollections of the 
Past, save when an occasional chirp bespeaks the presence of one 
(Of these friends, come back to take, perhaps, & last far ewal of 
Scenes which memory holds dear, to be instantly chased into ob- 
Scurity, 


672 ENGLISH SPARROWS. 


Mr. John Strouse of Chestnut Hill, a careful observer of the 
habits of birds, a taxidermist by occupation, informs me that in 
all his experience, which has been a very long one, he never met 
a species which, for size, displayed such pugnacity and persistent 
pertinacity during the breeding period, as the house sparrow. 
Instances of these unenviable traits have repeatedly come under 
his immediate observation. There are localities, he affirms, known 
to him, where the robin, sparrows and blue bird, were wont 
to breed every spring, except the last, in great numbers. This 
neglect of accustomed sites he attributes to the quarrelsome 
nature of the sparrows. Upon the property of Mr. John Butler 
of Germantown, the smaller native species were always to be dis- 
cerned in large numbers during the season of nidification, but 
now the English house sparrows have taken their places; the 
former were absolutely driven away, as he had ocular demonstra- 
tion of the fact. 

It is true that the birds have been of immense service in ridding 
our squares of the caterpillars which were once so prevalent and 
so annoying to persons of delicate nerves and refined tastes. 
Had our city authorities years ago, by a wise regulation, pro- 
vided for the removal of the squirrels, and encouraged many © 
our smaller insectivorous birds to build, by erecting suitable boxes 
for their accommodation, and imposing the severest penalty upon 
any who should molest them, there is no doubt that we should haye 
been saved the expense of importation and the repugnance which 
possesses some of us at witnessing the banishment of many of our 
most common species. Our smaller birds, once placed in out 
squares and unmolested, would, in course of time, come to regard 
such localities as their permanent homes, and, year after year 
would revisit them under the spur of past associations. Innumer- 
able instances might be cited to prove that birds are frequently 
so strongly attached to particular localities, that they yisit them 
every season unless driven away perforce. Such being the cas® 
why could not our squares be rendered so attractive to our 
smaller insectivorous birds that they would come to regard them 
as their homes during their sojourn with us? They could and 
the presence of the sparrows be dispensed with. 

[We printed Dr. Coues note with much reluctance, believing that the introduction of the 


English Sparrow was an unmixed good. We make room for Mr. Gentry’s reply, mber of this 
refer our readers to Mr. Gould’s note on the English Sparrow in the present nu 
Eps.) 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


Tue Gro.ocy or THE Lower Amazonas.*—The Ereré-Monte- 
Alegre District and the Tuble-topped Hills. In this paper Prof. 
Hartt has given us a very interesting account of a part of his 
careful explorations on the Lower Amazonas. In the fall of 
1870, a month was spent in the vicinity of Ereré with three assist- 
ants, and in the following year, nearly as much time was given to 
the same neighborhood in company with Mr. O. A. Derby, his 
present assistant. A large portion of the ground was gone over 
on foot and field notes and sketches carefully made. The results 
of Prof. Hartt’s labors are of extreme interest, as they clear up 
many uncertainties in regard to the age of the sandstones and 
shales of Ereré, supposed by the late Prof. Agassiz to be of gla- 
cial origin. They really belong as far back as the Palæozoic age. 
_ Space will permit us to give but a brief outline of the main por- 
tion of the paper, in connection with the sketches illustrating it, 
the cuts of which have been kindly loaned by the Buffalo Society 
of Natural Science. 

To the northwest of Monte-Alegre, a town situated on the Rio 
Curupatiiba, near where it enters the Amazonas, and distant 350- 
360 miles nearly directly west of Pará, is quite an extensive 
Plain, surrounded on all sides by hills and high grounds. The 
distance across the plain from north to south is about fifteen miles, 
its width from east to west is over ten miles. It lies somewhat 
higher than the alluvial plains of the Amazonas, and is drained 
by the Igarapé of Ereré, a small stream flowing into the Igarapé of 
Paitúna, which in turn enters the Rio Curupatiba some distance 
below Monte-Alegre. The structure of the plain of Ereré is very 
simple, for it is composed of nearly horizontal strata of Devonian 
age, through which the small Igarapé has worn a little valley, 
harrow toward the north where the stream flows over the bare 
rocks, but broader below and partly filled in with alluvial depos- 
its, lying below the level of the plain. The rocks project in iow 
i bluffs along the edge of the valley, and about fifteen feet in thick- 
"ess of the Devonian beds are exposed, where the road from the 
BOW tres rae, Professor ae Geoogy im Coral Univers Balai of the 
Bufalo Society of Natural Science, vol. 1, No. iv, Jan., 1874, pp. 201-235 

_ AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIIL 43 


(673) ` 


674 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


Igarapé to Ereré crosses the bluff on the west. The beds com- 
posing the lower part of this bluff consist of a ‘‘ soft, well-lam- 
inated, fine-grained shale, dark gray in color, alternating with 
white or red layers, and consisting of a fine, more or less sandy 
silt, with an abundance of little flakes of mica.” One species of 
Discina and two of Lingula were obtained from the variegated 
shales. The former has been identified with a New York species, 
` Discina lodensis of Hall from the Genesee shale, and is very abun- 
dant. Above the shales is a heavy bed of red and white clay 
rock, containing only obscure markings, the whole haying a slight 


WOODED PLAINS 


pa 


£ Jacare 
TIN p 
i ETCH M, 
Stony en th 
Campos | VICINITY OF 
MONTE ALEGRE 
DEVONIAN ‘AND 


Sat 


stent ALEGRE 
ee ; 
oan enS 


“GS 


ZE 


pl 


inclination to the southeast. In the northwestern part of the 
campo, Prof. Hartt.found, that “ the rock varies from a very ha 
dark-colored, silicious shale; to a well-bedded, dark-gray, compact, 
cherty rock, breaking with a conchoidal fracture.” These m 
the lowest beds of the series examined. Fragments only of pn 
were obtained from the more shaly portions. Following the 
Monte-Alegre trail eastward from the igarapé, light-colored pai 
with thin bands of a reddish sandstone, full of fossils, arè fo 
just before reaching the Monte-Alegre highlands. The 
belong to common Devonian genera. In a large ope? 


campo, to 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 675 


the north of the town of Ereré, at a distance of about two miles 
are red and whitish sandstones with whitish or yellowish shales. 
The sandstone is seldom seen in situ, but usually occurs in loose 
angular fragments. It affords an abundance of fossils, and forms 
the best collecting ground known on the plain. At this point 
Prof. Hartt and Mr. Derby made a very large collection of fossils. 
It represented ten genera of Brachiopods, about the same number 
of genera of Lamellibranchs and Gasteropods, two species and 
genera of Trilobites and several other forms. After a careful 
comparison of these with North American and European collec- 
tions, several of the species were found to be identical with species 
occurring in the Hamilton group of New York, and described by 
Prof. Hall. So the conclusions are, that the sandstones and 
shales of the Ereré plain were formed at a period, corresponding 
to that in which the Hamilton shales were laid down, in North 
America. 

The surface characters of the plain are in strict keeping with its 
simple structure. To the eastward of the Igarapé, it stretches to 
the foot of the Monte-Alegre highlands, almost as level as a floor, 
the Palseozoic rocks passing beneath the highlands. To the west- 
ward, as we approach Ereré, the plain forms a flat or rolling open 
_ Campo, with long gentle ascents and descents. There is very little 

soil on any part of the plain, the surface of which is usually 
covered with angular fragments of red sandstone or rounded iron 
nodules. The campo is sparingly covered with grass, while the. 
trees are few, stunted and scattered. Several large dykes occur 
on the plain. 
Having gone over, though very hastily, what seems to be the 
Most interesting part of Prof. Hartt’s paper, as it is the richest in 
Tesults, let us, by the aid of his sketches and descriptions, examine 
the surrounding hills. They form almost a square, protecting the, 
level plain on all sides; to the eastward lie the Tertiary hills of 
nte-Alegre, made up in large part of a single ridge, and extend- 
ing from the Curupatiba on the south nearly to the Serra of Taua- 
jurí on the north. They have a height of about 500 or 600 feet, 
are composed of horizontal beds of clays and sands, probably of 
Tertiary age, and seem to be “a degraded outlier of the once ex- 
tensive formation of the serras of Pard.” The upper town of the 
Villa of Monte-Alegre is placed upon its summit, above the Rio 
_ Curupatéba, toward which the descent is very rapid.  ' 


` 


676 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 

The Serra of Ereré forms.a part of the southern boundary of 
the plain. On its, east, between the serra and the igarapé, is a 
plateau, made up, at least in part, of obliquely laminated beds of 


Fig. 93. 


~ N t Beaton IN ony” 
4 $ Site AiR > 
AT ena Ns 
or ‘er BOSS, ff 


ve 


Serra of Ereré from the North. 
tinted sands and clays. ‘The serra is a high, narrow, rugged, 
irregular ridge, four or five miles long, trending about east-north- 
east. and west-south-west, and with abrupt and often precipitous 
sides.” The top of the ridge is very irregular, composed of heavy 
beds of sandstone which are often exposed in ledges, or lie strewn 


Fig. 94. 


Serra of Ereré from the East. 
about the surface in huge blocks. The sandstones form 4 nee 
bluffs along the upper part of the serra on its northern side, ben 
which the slope is very rapid. At both ends the serra 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 677 


quite abruptly, as represented in the following cut showing it from 
e east. 
Just west of the Serra of Ereré is a short ridge, with the same 
trend and geological structure, called Aroxi. ‘This is followed by 
several still smaller ridges, apparently part of the same outcrop. 


Fig. 95. 


Serras of Ereré and Aroxi from the Southwest, 


The Serra of Paittina, near’ the igarapé of the same name, is 
composed of horizontal beds of the same sandstone as that of the 
Serra of Ereré, “so that the two serras probably form part of a 
synclinal fold.” The sandstones for ming the Serra of Ereré are 
well jointed and of unequal hardness. On weathering, they have 
assumed many curious forms, some of which are covered with 
Indian inscriptions and paintings. Fragments of silicified wood 
have been found in the stone, but they are too poorly preserved to 
admit of identification. Thus we have no paleontological evidence 
as to the age of these sandstones, which may be older or newer 
than those of the plain to the north. 

ooking northeastward from the Serra of Ereré, beyond the 
northern termination of the Monte-Alegre highlands, we see the 
Serra of Tauajuri, a “splendid, blue, mountain mass, which, with 
precipitous front, heaves its back against the horizon, like a giant 
Wave ready to break upon the level plains of Ereré, that lie spread 


Fig. 96. 


* 


Sketch looking northward from Serra of Ereré. 
Sut before us. While, northward from the hills (of Aroxi and 
Aracurt) stretches a belt of low, wooded ridges, skirting the 
campos on the west and north, apa bending round to close the 
circuit with Tauajuri.” 
The Serra of Tauajuri isa y sharp-crested ridge, exceedingly steep 


on the southern side, but sloping off at an angle of 10°-15° on the — 


678 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


northern. Its highest point is about 850 feet above the level of 
the sea, and it appears to differ entirely from Ereré in its geological 
structure. The view from the summit extends over an immense 
area, the entire Ereré-Monte-Alegre highlands and the Devonian 
plain being in sight. 

Fig. 97. 


m 


i b 
r = ae 
=-_ M Soca, et RRL =» 
am = r 


‘2 


o eee 


4, 
The Devonian Plain and Serras of Ereré from the Serra of Tauajurt. 


The description of the table-topped hills to the eastward of 


Monte-Alegre, which have been the subject of much discussion, 


we copy verbatim: 


‘‘ The table-topped hills of the Amazonas, so frequently described 
by travellers, consist of several isolated mountains or plateaus of 
circumdenudation composed of horizontal strata, which lie on the 
northern side of the river between Prainha and Almeirim, and 
known collectively as the Serras of Parú. They are characterized 
by their flat level tops and their very abrupt, sometimes precipitous 


eastward of which is that of Velha Pobre, while still farther east 
are the Serras of Almeirim. The general appearance of a 
mountains is represented in the following sketch made from the 
river,” 


Fig. 98. 


Serras of Parú from the Amazonas. 


“The serra of Parauáquára is distant, as nearly as I car judg 
about twenty miles to the eastward of the fazenda”. (of aa 
Rodrigues on the Igarapé of Marapi). ‘It is an extensive, İso noe 
plateau of cireumdenudation, and apparently forms a long, wi akoi 
irregular strip, running east-west. The following sketch, topo- 
from a point a few miles west of the mountain, will show its 

phical features as seen in elevation.” 


: Sees a e 
AD eee ele S eee yee eet 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. i 679 


Fig. 99. 


Serra of Parauáquára from the West. 

“The following cut is from a sketch taken from the top of the 
serra, looking off northward along the western side, showing the 
level-topped summit, and the steep sides and spurs, along which 
tun the edges of the horizontal strata like courses of masonry.” 
> Fig. 100. ` 


Serra of Paraudquara from the top looking northward. 

No fossils have been found in the Paraudquara beds and their 
age is undetermined. — R. R. pial 

We may add that the excellent paleontological work by Mr. 
Rathbun “On the Devonian Brachiopoda of Ereré, Province of 
Pará, Brazil,” follows and supplements Prof. Hartt’s paper, and is 
illustrated with three heliotypic plates, containing one hundred 
and one figures. The author draws the following conclusions 
from his study of the Brachiopod fauna of Ereré :— 

“ Although the fossils so far obtained from Ereré, were collected 

m so small an area and so limited a thickness of. rock a 


Species of the Hamilton group.” 


680 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


Tue ORIGINAL DISTINCTION oF THE TESTICLE AND Ovary.* — 
An interesting contribution to the germ layer or Gastrea theory 
of Haeckel, which is now exciting the attention of embryologists 
and evolutionists, is afforded by Prof. E. Van Beneden of Liége. 
It will cause an inquiry into the real value of Haeckel’s Gastræa 
theory, disputed by some of our leading zoologists. We translate 
Van Beneden’s introduction and conclusions. 


of the Coelenterata, and the two primordial cellular layers of verte- 
brates. See in what terms he expresses this idea; ‘the pecui- 
arity in the structure of the body-walls of the Hydrozoa, to which I 
have just referred, possesses a singular interest in its bearings 
upon the truth that there is a certain similarity between the adult 
states of the lower animals and the embryonic conditions of 
higher organizations. 

‘For it is well known that, in a very early state, the germ, ee 


drozoon and the embryonic vertebrate animal.’ All the embryo 
logical researches made in 


ara sexuel des denx 
e de toute mdi- 
y 1874. 89% 


* De la Thioti 


Feuillets primordiaux de PEmbryón; Hermaphrodisme morphologiqu 
vidualité anim Essai d’une Théorie de la Fécondation. Bruxelles 


t tion of at 
tions upon the Anatomy of the Diphydz and the br of Organizi 
4 i Roya 


t Observati 
the Diphydæ and Siphonophoræ. Proceedings Royal Society, 184 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 681 


work done in this direction may, without fear of contradiction, be 
cited that of Kowalevsky ; in showing the identity of development 
of Amphioxus and of the Ascidians, he closed with a single stroke 


defended in two essays of a high philosophic import. Haec 


Annals and Magazine of Natural History, under the title ; “On 
the Primitive Cell-layers of the Embryo as the Basis of the Genea- 
logical Classification of Animals” by my friend E. Ray Lankester. 

All the pluricellular animals, in which the development begins 
by the segmentation of the cell-egg, pass through in the course of 
their evolution a similar embryonic form, that of a sac whose thin 


zation; that the endoderm has in all the same morphological 
value; that the primordial digestive cavity of vertebrates, and 
tof all other types of organization have the same anatomical 


= 


and Von Baer. Finally, we can infer the existence at a geologi 


“heir external characters, have been the common source of verte- 
brates, arthropods, mollusks, echinoderms, worms and zoophytes ; 
they constitute the very numerous group of Gastræades (Haeckel). 


682 _ REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 


If the endoderm and ectoderm are homologous in all the Metazoa 


[i.e. all animals except Protozoa] we then “have a right to suppose 


that these two cellular layers have in all the same histological 


concerns the central nervous system, which is developed in all 
animals from the ectoderm. 

‘ RRR EA it makes no difference if we should wish to know 

the origin of an organ, whether we seek for it in one or another 


animal kingdom, and receive a general signification. 
However, of all the types of organization, that which serves 


with their embryonic characters during their entire life; all the or- 
gans of the zoophytes are only a dependence a ah or the other 
of these layers, sometimes of the two layers un 
The polype form may be traced back with the ah eg ara 
to the Gastrula, all the parts of which are preserved without un- 
dergoing any great modifications during all the course of exist- 
ence. 


Conclusions. In the Hydractinie 1. The eggs are developed 
exclusively from the epithelial cellules of the endoderm. They 
remain, up to the time of their maturity, surrounded by the ele- 

m. 


2. The testicles and spermatozoa are developed from the ecto- 
derm; this organ results from the progressive transformation of 
a primitive cellular fold formed by invagination. 

3. There exists in the female sporosacs a rudiment of th 
ticular organ ; in the male sporosacs a rudiment of an oy Ary 
sporosacs are then sbigeaaque engaataied hermaphrodites. * 
Fecundation. consists in the u of an egg, a product A the 


e tes- 
Pg: 
* 


froin which the ectoderm are formed are Kaede a separated from 
those which are to form the internal layer of the embryo. Be 

The new individuality j is realized at the instant when the uni 
between the elements of opposed polarity has taken place, as 
solutely as a molecule of water is formed by the union of atoms 
of hydrogen and oxygen 


In a late paper on the embryology of jelly fishes Metz 
criticised the universal application of Haeckel’s Gastrea theory» 


nikoff has — 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 683 


and shown that in the embryos of the Acalephs and Echinoderms 
the outer layer is invaginated and forms the walls of the stomach. 
And it appears to us that if organs, such as the ovary and testicle, 
almost universally recognized as homologous, are developed from 
opposite germ-layers, then the importance of the germ-layer theory 
of Haeckel is diminished by Van Beneden’s remarkable discovery. 
We should say, however, that at the last meeting of the French 
Association for the Advancement of Science, Mr. P. Hallez ques- 
tioned whether the ovary and testis were homologous. Meanwhile 
Giard announced at the same meeting that the male organs of 
Sacculina, a crustacean, are developed from the frontal glands, 
which in turn arise from the ectoderm. $ 


EETA RERA 


MEF. 


ae eee 


= EEE T LOTINA AIER E E AS 


_ Mars or Wneerer’s Expepirion. — We have received six ad- 
vance sheets of a ‘Topographical Atlas” projected to illustrate 
Explorations and Surveys west of the 100th meridian of longi- 
tude, embracing results of the different expeditions under Lt. 
Wheeler, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., published by the war de- 
partment. The scale of each atlas sheet is one inch to eight 
miles. Sheet 50 covers portions of central and western Utah; 
sheets 58 and 59 embrace parts of eastern and southeastern Ne- 
vada and southwestern Utah; sheet 66 covers portions of south- 
western Utah, northwestern Arizona and southeastern California. 
The work appears to be well done and will be useful to geographers 
and naturalists studying the distribution of plants and animals, 
_ specially the map of the areas of drainage to the Atlantic and 
Pacific oceans and of the interior basins of the United States, 
West of the Mississippi river. 

We have found exceedingly useful the progress map of lines and 
_ Areas lying west of the 100th meridian, and giving the lines of 

exploration by different parties sent out by government since Lt. 
‘ ’s expedition of 1805; not, however, including the area sur- 
_ Yeyed by parties under the Department of the Interior and Smith- 

Sonian Institution. : 

A large number of sheets are in preparation, and we shall ere 
long with the aid of these and the maps publishing by Hayden and 
Powell’s expedition, with those of Whitney’s Survey of California, 
be in Possession of definite knowledge of the region west of the 
Mississippi, which is now altogether wanting in any atlas we have 
Yet seen. f 


Dy 
i 


684 BOTANY. 


PHYSIOLOGY or THE CrrcuLaTion.*—In this useful work the 


author has aimed ‘‘ at producing a ‘comprehensive view of the cir- - 


culation as it exists in the lowest vegetable and highest animal 
forms.” He has ‘endeavored to prove by a variety of arguments 
that the circulation, whenever and wherever found, differs less in 
kind than in degree; that fluids may move in living tissues with 
or without vessels and hearts ; that the circulation in an aggrega- 
tion of vegetable cells is essentially the same as that which occurs 
in the tissues of our own bodies. As a chain is composed of 
links, all of which are formed on a common type and fit into each 
other, so the circulation in the lowest vegetables and animals 
gradually develops into that of the higher, until we reach man 

imself; the circulation in the one being a as perfect as 
in the other.” 


_ BULLETIN OF THE CORNELL Untvenstry. +—The first two num- 
bers of this new periodical, a credit alike to the university and 
the officers, contains a report of a reconnoissance of the Lower 
Tapajos river, by Professor C. F. Hartt, and a finely illustrated 
paper by Mr, O. A. Derby on the Carboniferous Brachiopoda of 
Itaittiba, Rio Tapajos, Brazil. We hope the patrons of the Uni- 
versity will sustain this valuable publication. 


Manvat or Meratturey.{—The author of this excellent manual 
was a student of Dr. Percy, the distinguished metallurgist, from 
_ whose work the present one is in part compiled. It will evidently 
prove, as the author hopes, a useful auxiliary to the more volumi- 
nous works on this subject. It is amply illustrated. 


BOTANY. 

“Anarervorous Pants. §— The leaf of Sarracenia is 4 trumpet- 
shaped tube, with an arched lid, covering, more or less completely, 
the mouth. The inside is furnished with a perfect chevaux-de- 
Srise of retrorse bristles, commencing suddenly about an inch from 
als, and in Man. 


The Physiology of the Circulation in Plants, in ~ Lower Anim sailed 
By J Bell paige Mote trated by 150 engravings on wood. London. Ma 
&Co. 1874. 


y. 
{Bulletin ac be. Cornen er (Science.) “Vol. i, Nos. 1, 2- Ithaca, a 
1874. 8vo, pp. 63, with 9 plates aie 
TA Manual of iple meeng By W. H. Greenwood. Vol.i. Fuel, Teve et i 


Antimony, Arsenic, Bismuth and iain Illustrated by 59 engravin; 960. $1.50 
G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Advanced | Spron Serie 8. No date. perl verm © Goh i 
§ Abstract of ə paper enc 


BOTANY. | 685 


the base ; thence decreasing in size until from about the middle to 
. the mouth they are so short, dense, and compact, that they form a 
decurved pubescence which is perfectly smooth and velvety to the 
touch, especially as the finger passes downward. Under the hood 
again, many of them become large and coarse. Running up the 
front of the trumpet is a broad wing with an emarginate border, 
parting at the top and extending around the rim of the pitcher. 
Along this border, but especially for a short distance inside the 
mouth, and less conspicuously inside the lid, there exude drops of 
= A sweetened, viscid fluid, which, as the leaf matures, is replaced 
_ byawhite, papery, tasteless, or but slightly sweetened sediment 
or efflorescence; while at the smooth bottom of the pitcher is 
secreted a limpid fluid possessing toxic or inebriating qualities. 
The insects which meet their death in this fluid are numerous, 
and of all orders. Ants are the principal victims, and the acidu- 
lous properties which their decomposing bodies give to the liquid 
_ doubtless render it all the more potent as a solvent. Scarcely 
any other Hymenoptera are found in the rotting mass, and it is an 
interesting fact that Dr. Mellichamp never found the little nectar- 
loving bee or other Mellifera about the plants. On one occasion 
only have I found in the pitcher the recognizable remains of a 
Bombus, and on one occasion only has he found the honey bee 
captured. Species belonging to all the other orders are captured, 
and among the larger species I have found katydids, locusts, 
crickets, cockroaches, flies, moths, and even butterflies in a more 
ed less irrecognizable condition. 
Two species are proof against the siren influences of the de- 
_ Stroyer, and in: turn oblige it, either directly or indirectly, to 
‘Support them. The first is Xanthoptera semicrocea Guen., a little 
glossy moth which may be popularly called the Sarracenia moth. — 
It Walks with perfect impunity over the inner surface of the 
Pitcher, and is frequently found in pairs within the pitchers soon 
: after these open in the early part of the season, or about the end 
f April. The female lays her eggs singly near the mouth of the 
her, and the young larva from the moment of hatching spins 
itself a carpet of silk, and very soon closes up the mouth by 
“tawing the rim together with a delicate gossamer-like web, which 
 “ffectually debars all small outside intruders. It then begins fret- 
ting under the hood, feeding downward on the cellular tissue and 
teayir -only the epidermis, and by the time the worm has attained 


ee ee a A aE 
SS a TEE TEET RS e ie Ta) 


686 , BOTANY. 


its full size the pitcher generally collapses. At this time the worm 
is beautifully colored, and is characterized by rows of tubercles, 
which are especially prominent on the four larger, legless joints. 
The chrysalis is formed in a very slight cocoon. The species, 
kindly determined by Mr. A. R. Grote, was many years ago fig- 
ured by Abbot, who found it feeding on Sarracenia variolaris in 
Georgia. Gueneé’s descriptions were made from these figures, 
and here the author appends a few descriptive notes from the 
living material, of interest only to specialists on account of their 
technical character. The second insect which successfully braves 
captivation is a species of flesh-fly which the author names Sarco- 
phaga sarracenie. After giving some technical details of struct- 
ure, he shows how the larva of this fly riots in the putrid insect 
remains, and how, in order to undergo its transformations, it 
bores through the leaf and burrows into the ground. e im- 
mense prolificacy of these flesh-flies, and the fact that the young 
are hatched in the ovaries of the parent before they are deposited 
by her on tainted meat, are duly commented upon, as well as the 
rapid development of the species ; also the propensity of the larve 
for killing one another and their ability to adapt themselves to 
different conditions of food-supply are made appreciable. 

In conclusion the author says: To one accustomed to seek the 
why and wherefore of things the inquiry very naturally arises as to 
whether Xanthoptera and Sarcophaga play any necessary Or si 
portant rôle in the economy of Sarracenia. Speaking of the Sar- 
cophaga larva, Mr. Ravenel asks, “ May he not do some service to 
Sarracenia as Pronuba does to Yucca?” And if so may not all 
this structure for the destruction of insects be’ primarily for y 
benefit? Can he be merely an intruder, sharing the store of pro- 
vision which the plant, by ingenious contrivance, has secured for 
itself,.or is he a welcome inmate and profitable tenant? Self-fer- 
tilization does not take place in Sarracenia, and the possibility 
that the bristly flesh-fly aids in the important act of pollination, 
lends interest to the facts. No one has witnessed with g" 2 
pleasure than myself the impulse which Darwin has of late r 
given to such inquiries, but the speculative spirit, is, in some we 
ters, becoming too wild and unbridled, and we should be cautions 
lest it impair our judgment or our ability to read the simple ka 
of the facts. My own conclusions summed up are: 


First: There is no reason to doubt, but every reason to ba 


BOTANY. 687 


+ that Sarracenia is a truly insectivorous plant, and that by its se- 
cretions and structure it is eminently fitted to capture its prey. 

: Second: That those insects most easily digested (if I may use 
the term), and most useful to the plant, are principally ants and 
‘ small flies, which are lured to their graves by the honeyed path, 
and that most of the larger insects, which are not attracted by 
Sweets, get in by accident and fall victims to the peculiar mechan- 
~ ical structure of the pitcher. 

Third: That the only benefit to the plant is from the liquid 
_ Manure resulting from the putrescent captured insects, some of 
Which doubtless descend to the root-stalk, and probably through 
7 large tubular cells, observed by Mr. Ravenel, passing through the 
petiole into the root. 

; Fourth: That Sarcophaga is a mere intruder, the larva spong- 
_ Ing on and sharing the food obtained by the plant, and the fly 


Fifth: That Xanthoptera, has no other connection with the 
Plant than that of a destroyer, though its greatest injury is done 
after the leaf has performed its most important functions. Al- 
most every plant has its peculiar insect enemy, and Sarracenia, 
all its dangers to insect life generally, is no exception to the 

Tule. 
| Sixth: That neither the moth nor the fly have any structure 
_ Peculiar to them, which enables them to brave the dangers of the 
k Em beyond what many other allied species possess. — C. V. 


4 


G. ; ‘Distrsution or American Wooptanps.*— This is a paper to 
> published in the Statistical Atlas of the United States, now in 
Progress of publication. It is an exhibition of a map, and a 
: description of the methods by which the map was colored. Then 
a Aeh an analysis of the trees of the tree flora in the ten dis- 
: sag into which the United States was divided. The flora of the 
- Unitea States, the author said, is believed to contain over 800 


SR rete tS Thee ne ves ee et SN Ss a a ee | ee LA Seg eet, Pm ae lee a SST rie eee oe 
ieee a dine 2 eee > 


? 
: 
é 
ie 


*Read at the Hartford Meeting of the Amer. Assoc. Adv. Science. 
i 


688 BOTANY. 


woody species, and over 300 trees. Of these trees about 250 spe- 
cies are somewhere tolerably abundant, about 120: species grow 
to a tolerably large size, 20 attain a height of 100 feet, 12 a 
height sometimes of over 200, and a few—perhaps 5 or 6—a 


height of 300. The speaker analyzed the districts, adding: New — 


England I consider to contain 80 or 85. species, of which 50 may 
reach a height of fifty feet; Maine is the great source of pine and 
spruce lumber, but as a whole the hard wood species predominate. 
Without going into the details of this flora, it is sufficient to give 
the author’s remark that the area of woodland in New England is 
not perhaps greatly diminishing, but the amount of timber capa- 
ble of being made into sawed lumber is lessening. The Middle 
States have about 100 to 105 species of trees, 65 to 67 of which 
sometimes reach 50 feet in height. Here were originally very 
heavy forests. There are still large areas heavily timbered, but 
the timber for all purposes is unquestionably rapidly diminishing, 
and there is no compensating influence going on for increase. 
But in the Middle and New England. States various hard woods 
attain their greatest perfection as to strength and durability ; and 
as a consequence here we find the manufactures that are depen- 
dent on those woods. In the southeastern region—that is, €x- 
tending from Virginia and Florida—we have about 130 species. 
In each case these form the conspicuous elements of the land- 
scape. 75 attain a height of 50 feet or more, and about a dozen 
species a height of 100 feet. A belt of pine timber extends the 
whole length of this region, which is the great source of the har 
and yellow pine. The author described the ornamental trens of 
that beautiful region, and resumed: The northwestern region, 


from Ohio to Minnesota, and north of the Ohio River, is repre 


sented by about 105 to 110 species, 68 or 70 of which may 


a height of fifty feet. That is the district furnishing at present 


the largest production of sawed lumber within the United States. 
Michigan alone furnished in 1870 of the 12,750,000 of M. feet 
2,250,000; Wisconsin furnished over 1,000,000 —the two ae 
thus producing more than one-fourth of the whole yield returned 
in that year. 


The author alluded to the rapidity of the destruction going on S. 


in that region ; also of the diminution of sawing lumber in the 


forests, and the increase in woodland over the prairie re 
becomes cultivated. The southwestern region, exten 
i, 


gion asit 
ding from 


BOTANY. 689 


Kentucky to Texas and the Gulf, has about 112 to 118 species, 60 
or 65 of which attain a height of 50 feet, which the author also 
analyzed. West of these last two districts, this treeless belt, ex- 
tending entirely across the continent from the Gulf of Mexico to 
the Arctic Ocean, is described, and its characteristics within the 
limits of the United States are mentioned. It is 350 miles wide 
in its narrowest part, between latitude 36° and 37°, and 800 miles 
wide on our northern border. The Rocky Mountain region is 
next considered. This consists of from 28 to 30 species, but a 
vastly smaller number making up the timber region. Perhaps not 
over half a dozen species constitute by far the larger part. No 
hard woods are abundant in any of the forests west of the Great 
Plains, although hard woods occur, particularly in the southern 
and western part, as scattered trees rather than as forests. Be- 
tween the Rocky Mountains in the Sierra Nevada is a desert 
or sparsely wooded region, which extends southward to Mexico, 
uniting on its southern part with the treeless expanse which ex- 
tends from the Atlantic to the Pacific along our southern frontier, 
and throwing out a spur entirely across the Rocky Mountains 
_ hear the Pacific Railroad, connecting it with the tréeless plains on 
_ the eastern side. This great treeless district varies very much in 
its different regions, has quite a large number of species of inter- 
est to botanists, and some few of economic value. The only 
forests within it are forests of conifers, occurring on the moun- 
tains, of which the largest one is in Arizona and is 400 miles 
$ long, the limits of which have recently been. demonstrated by 
Lieut, Wheeler’s Expeditions. Here followed an analysis by the 
_ Author of the flora of the region west of this Desert ; of California, 
: Washington Territory, and Oregon, where were found the grandest 
forests, perhaps, on earth, and the noblest trees. The number of 
 “Pecies of these latter is quite large, but in any one region the 
_ ‘Sumber of species is small. With one single exception all of the 
_ ees within the United States which attain a height of 200 feet 
are found in this district. The forests are entirely of cone bear- 
_ ing trees and the number of species is large, the number of timber 
« trees being very large and their size and value also being gress. 
h Washington Territory official reports state that the land will 
_ Produce from 25,000 to 300,000 feet per acre, and that there are 
_ "ast tracts “that would cover the entire surface with cord wood 
_ MER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 44 > 


ER A ra e er 


690 BOTANY. 


10 feet in height.” Then follows again an analysis of the trees 
of California and Oregon, including the many forms there that 
have been of interest in the world. 

In Alaska, the tenth region or district, the data are insufficient 
for the map, but there are heavy forests there that are well known. 
The author rapidly discussed the original disposition of forests, 
. showing what variety of causes have controlled this. Then the 
economic value of some of the industries directly dependent on 
them were alluded to, and the author ended his paper with some 
conelusions regarding the future supply, and suggestions regard- 
ing the planting of trees.— Wm. H. Brewer. 


Apoxa MOSCHATELLINA L., 1s Iowa !—A correspondent in the 
Northeastern part of the state sent me some time since speci- 
mens which prove to be Adoxa Moschatellina L. Its locality is 
given in the “Flora of North America” as between lat. 54° and 
64°, and on the higher peaks of the Rocky Mountains as far south 
as lat. 42°. Professors Porter and Coulter in the ‘Flora of Col- 
orado” call it a “sub-alpine, common” plant. The last named 
gentleman collected it on Mt. Lincoln at the altitude of 13,000 
feet. Mr. Watson in a private note says, “not found before this 
side of Colorado and the mountains, I believe.” 

Its occurrence ‘in Iowa is certainly unlooked for. It grows 
abundantly on a ‘rocky hillside, and was in bloom in May. m 
locality in this case is best given as “Upper Iowa River, Jowa. 
—C. E. Bessey, Agricultural College of Iowa, Aug. 31, 1874. 

Dispersion OF SEEDS BY SHOOTING THEM OFF. — Our Corre- 
spondent, Mr. Brandegee.of Colorado, ‘writes : — 

ed an inter- 


“ While drying seeds of Jonidium lineare, I notic I 
esting habit it has of shooting its seeds. Each capsule ra 


shot off singly, as one shoots orange 
fingers. A good shot will go fifteen te twenty feet.” | 
All violets do it, and Jonidium is of ‘this family. To render 
the operation clearer, it should be added that the three firm valves 
into which the capsule splits, after their separation fold together 
on their axis, to which the seeds are attached in a row, and a 
the gradually increasing pressure so applied to the hard ane 
Smooth-coated ovoid seeds that fires them off. — Eps. 


* 


ZOOLOGY. 691 


Borryrcntum LUNARIA Swartz, was collected in Michigan long 
before the date given in the June Naturauist by Mr. Gillman. 
In my herbarium are specimens collected on Isle Royale by Dr. 
A. E. Foote, in the summer f 1868.—C. E. Besser. 


ZOOLOGY. 


TRANSFORMATIONS OF OUR Morns.— Some interesting notes are 
given by Mr. J. A. Lintner in the “ Twenty-sixth Annual Report 
on the New York State Cabinet of Natural History for 1872.” 
He describes very fully the larva of Eudryas unio which feeds on 
Epilobium coloratum, and not on the grape, as stated by Fitch, 
and afterwards by Packard and Riley on Fitch’s authority. Lint- 
= ner gives characters for distinguishing the larvæ of Eudryas unio 
and grata as well as Psychomorpha epimenis, which so closely re- 
sembles Eudryas in its larval stage. The larve of Parorgyia 
parallela Gr. Rob., Apatelodes angelica Grote, Celodasys unicornis 
(Sm. Abb. Fig. 101), Platycerura fureilla Pack. (Fig. 102), Dry- 


Fig. 101. ` Fig. 102. 


Sigh Se Pe ae ee ee ee ge ee 


Fig. 103. 


J A AA pa A ANA a a O toe’ 
ARa Yt Pad aw Mer pe Stee hated SPD $o 


Larva of Nadata gibbosa. 


Fig. 104. s Fig. 105. 


© 


Larva of Platycerura 
furcilla. 


Fa TIO ae Be ET Ee RD Ves an ae ee CEE ee Pee Sk ee ee 


(Stoll), Nadata gibbosa 
(Fig. 104, 


Fig. 105, the same when feeding) ; 


(Fiz. 106) and other Bombycid moths are described. Several 


P3 


692 ZOOLOGY. 
larvee of the Noctuide are also described for the first time ; among 
them Diphiera deridens Guenée (Fig. 107). Several new moths 


> Fig. 107. 
Fig. 106. 


machi 


Larva of Cerura. 


Fig. 108. 


Male, Female. 


Cucullia Speyeri. 


are described, among them Cucullia Speyeri (Fig. 108, male; F ig. 
109, female). The separate copies are in some cases accompanied 
by the finest photographs we ever saw. 


Encuisu Sparrow.—I noticed in your magazine for September 
Dr. Thos. M. Brewers defence of the European house sparrow, 
and being convinced that this little friend of man has been ma- 
ligned both in its native and adopted home, I desire to add my 
testimony as the result of careful experience and observation. — 

In January last I procured twelve European house sparrows in 
Boston, Mass., and had them sent to me by express. Two died 
from the effects of the journey, the rest I kept in my parn loft 
until April, when they were let out, or rather eight of them, 35 
two more were killed by a cat which got in the barn without my 
knowledge. . 

On our place we have a large number of pear and peach eet 
besides several maples, two walnut trees, an English oak 
shrubs and flowering bushes of various kinds. In our _ 
garden we raised during the past season three kinds of corn, r 
toes, cabbages, tomatoes, beets, carrots, onions, radishes, st 


berry tomatoes, horse radish, celery, several varieties of beans 


* 


Se Ce Ghar MO gee ge Te NE Boe) SS ee ere 


Roe oe ONT pee ane ena ATE 


E LS 


GEOLOGY. 693 


peas, squashes, pumpkins, turnips, martynas, lettuce, spinach, and 
other vegetables, besides herbs, black, red and white currants, and 
several varieties of grapes ; we also had a large number of flowers. 
During the summer our garden has been remarkably free from 
worms, and our crops never were better. Our trees never did 
better, while they have’ been remarkably free from caterpillars 
where last year (1873) they were nearly stripped of their foliage 
by their ravages. 

In the place of the eight sparrows let out in April we now have 
thirty, and they appear to be constantly at work about the place. 
They are nearly always accompanied by the American goldfinch 
or yellow bird and our common sparrow. 

To-day as I sat in my room writing I saw them fraternizing with 
a flock of blackbirds on one of our walnut trees. In fact they 
Seem to court the society of other birds, and never have the birds 
been so abundant on our place. The male sparrows fight among 
themselves after the manner of roosters, but do not seem to molest 
other birds. 

The sparrows did, with the yellow birds, attack our radish and 
turnip seeds as they ripened, but by using netting around those 
plants we kept the birds from doing serious damage. Nothing 
else was attacked by them, and we consider them a positive benefit 
to our place. We keep a horse and are accustomed to spread the 
stable droppings from day to day, broadcast. The sparrows seem 
to watch for this, and in an incredibly short time pick over and 
Separate the manure and spread it much better than could be done 
with the hoe and rake. They are sprightly, friendly, and useful, 
and we would not have them leave us for much more than they 
originally cost.—Sreruen Govtp, Newport, R: I., Sept., 1874. 

MONSTROSITIES amona BeerLes. — Dr. Kraatz publishes, in the 
17th volume of the Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, an illus- 


trated paper on deformities in beetles. 


GEOLOGY. 
Suprosep Lower SILURIAN LAND Prants: — Prof. J. S. New- 
berry doubts (American Journal Science and Arts, August, 1874) 
Whether the Sigillaria mentioned by M. Lesquereux as occurring 
in the Lower Silurian beds of Ohio is a Sigillaria at all or whether 
it is a land plant even. 


= 


694 ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Evrorean FossıL Cetacea.— Prof. J. F. Brandt has published, 
in the memoirs of the Royal Academy of St. Petersburg, an elab- 
orate quarto work on the fossil and ‘sub-fossil Cetacea of Europe. 
It is illustrated with 34 plates. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


RESTORATION or InpIAN Potrery.—The caving of a bank of 


loamy earth on the east side of Connecticut River, about seven 
miles above Hartford, brought to light, several years ago, fragments 
of Indian pottery, which were found by a gentleman then tem- 
porarily residing at East Windsor Hill in that vicinity. They were 
composed of burnt clay intermingled with particles of pounded 
quartz, and as they evidently had a relation to one another, he 
commenced putting them together, using for that purpose slips of 
writing paper, about half an inch wide, and two inches long, coated 
with thick gum-arabic mucilage, and stuck on the inside of the 
pieces opposite the joints. 

When I first saw his work he had reconstructed, from the pieces 
which he had found, about half of a kettle, the rim of which was 
entire, and about ten inches in diameter, and quite elaborately or- 
namented with lines grooved in the clay while it was in a plastic 
state. I was much interested in his work, for though I had fre- 
quently found fragments of that kind of pottery, I had never seen 
pieces of any one utensil sufficient in size or number to indicate 
the forms or dimensions of such ware. I went with him to the 
place of deposit, and we raked and sifted the soil thoroughly , 
and recovered additional fragments, from which we built up with 
the gummed slips, the entire form of the kettle, although there 
were in several places gaps which no shards were found to fil. 
It cost a deal of time and study to locate all the pieces, of which 
there were about seventy-five in number broken (it might a most be 
said) into every shape and size into which crockery could be bro- 
ken. The labor was like that of putting together a dissected map: 


very dissected ; or like that of solving all the figures of @ book of 


Chinese puzzles laid together in one grand design. - 
The gummed slips answered the purpose of their designer ad- 
mirably. Had he interposed between the shards any kind of ie 
ment, that would have prevented strict contiguity, or that woul 
have Set them immovably in their places as they were added o2? 


E boria Ri ae 
Soe Te Re Dees Lee) Pe ee ma, oe 


A N a RE OE 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 695 


ing the plastic clay, and towards the bottom, 
quent use. The exterior of the bottom was somewhat darkened, 
as if by smoke; there was no glazing, and the general color was & 
dark brick red. The dimensions nearly were, height fourteen and 
one-fourth inches, diameter of rim nine and one-half inches, of 
neck eight and one-fourth inches, and of body eleven and one-half 
inches. Capacity about thirteen quarts, beer measure. 

The first finder of the relic shortly transferred his residence to 
a foreign country, and his title tome. Wishing recently to take 
a drawing from this kettle, I found that atmospheric changes had 
caused most of the gummed slips to peel from the interior of the 
work so that it scarcely held together. Chaos might come again 
at any moment. As a first precaution I immediately made a quan- 
tity of duplicate numbers on little squares of paper, and gummed 
them on the outside opposite all the joints; then separated the 
work into nearly its original number of pieces, and rebuilt it with 
new slips, leaving a hole at the top (or bottom rather, as the ket- 
tle stood mouth downwards) large enough to see, and work upon, 
_ the interior. 


696 ‘MICROSCOPY. 


After the body of the kettle had been brought into its true 
shape, the first step towards improvement was to make a not very 
thick solution of glue in water, and lay it with a small brush, into 
all the joints; avoiding spreading the glue beyond the joints as 
much as possible. This, on drying, set all the fragments in place 
quite firmly. The upper pieces around the hole, however, were 
not glued, but left supported by the gummed slips only for con- 
venient insertion of the last pieces. Slips were next gummed on 
the inside across all gaps left by missing fragments. I then made 
a kind of cement, or mortar from pieces of very soft burned brick, 
pounded to dust, sifted, shaded to the color of the kettle with 


lamp-black, and moistened to a plastic state with not very thick . 


glue water. With this mortar all the joints and gaps were filled 
on the outside. But the gaps were designedly not filled quite to 
the required thickness with one coat, as the mortar would shrink 
and crack somewhat in drying. Wherever these cracks appeared, 
glue was rubbed into them with the brush before laying on the 
final coat of cement. When this coat was dry it was smoothed 
with old files and sand paper and groove-marked in imitation of 
the unbroken surface. Protuberances inthe cement too large to 
be readily filed down in a dry state, were first surface-softened bcd 
slight damping. The hole at the top was next underlaid with 
slips, and filled. Finally the slips were all removed from the M- 
terior by damping with a moist cloth, and any crevices that ap- 
peared were filled with cement. 

From a basket full of nearly worthless shards was thus recon- 
structed a single relic, very rare (at least in Connecticut) whole 
and strong, showing no obvious breakage, as good as new for e 


nological use, and as indestructible if not soaked with water, 83 


any specimen of ceramic art.—E. W. Exuswortu, East Windsor 
Hill, Ct. 


MICROSCOPY. 


Beapep Smica Fitms.—Mr. Henry J. Slack has produced 
delicate films of silica, by mixing powdered glass, powdered fore 
spar and sulphuric acid in a flask and conducting through a 8149 
pipe the gas which escapes from the heated mixture into %7 
containing glycerine and water. By contact with pure water the 
gaseous silica is deposited so suddenly and violently as to PPO 
duce only amorphous particles, and a similar result is obt@® 


spi i 


Bey oe =e É A Y 
Ste ae Hae ee ea s rae 
ta Sameer Soh oe the ee ae a ne erie oe area oi, Sigg ae ei il ec 


o 
Th 


* 
a 
A 
Eh 


-arrange diatoms and pursue similar min 


_ Sharply pointed feathers on the extreme en 


MICROSCOPY. 697 


when silica is precipitated from its alkaline salts or water-glasses 
dissolved in water; but a mixture of glycerine retards the pro- 
cess and gives opportunity for the formation of definite forms. 
The films thus produced, washed and examined in water or 
mounted in balsam, either simulate organic cell forms, with cavi- 
ties formed by the bursting of minute gas-bubbles, or consist of 
beads or spherules exhibiting remarkable regularity of size and 
arrangement; the beads seem to vary from zyġov tO roo000 inch 
or less; and they appear to least advantage, in size, under the 
highest powers. They seem calculated to add to our knowledge 
of high power definition if not to throw light upon questions of 
crystallization and organization. Some of the films produced the 
beautiful polychromatic effects so often mentioned by Dr. Pigott 
as occurring in beaded diatoms and scales. $ 


CELL-CULTURE IN THE Srupy or Funer.—Ph. Van. Tieghem 
and G. LeMonnier in their published researches on the Mucorini 
give a good working account of their method of cell-culture which 
is applicable not only to the smaller fungi but jo many other 
plants. A glass cell 1 or 4 inch is cemented upon a glass slide, 
and a suitable cover-glass is kept in place by three minute drops 
of oil placed on the edge of the ring. The contained air is kept 
moist by a few drops of water placed in the bottom of the cell, 
while a very small drop of the nutritive fluid is placed on the 
lower surface of the cover-glass, and in this drop the spore to be 
cultivated is sown. The whole drop, and indeed the entire con- 
tents of the cell, can now be examined with suitable powers, and 
the germination and development of the plant traced hour after 
hour from any given spore, with the greatest certainty and ease. 
Extraneous spores will sometimes be introduced, but they are 
easily detected. 

Hanpiixne Diatoms. — Capt. Lang, of the Reading Microscop- 
ical Society, gives “ A useful Hint ” to persons who select and 
ute work under the micro- 
Scope. Hairs, from various animals, whipped on to delicate 
handles, are generally satisfactory, those of T, or fine 
camel-hair or sable brushes, being generally useful. But some 
diatoms refuse to be thus picked up, and these he finds to be read- 


ily handled by means of a fine feather. ‘The fine, stiff, elastic, and 
d of the carpal joints 


Ta 


ae ee 
3 Tees 


hen 


698 ; MICROSCOPY. 


of the wings of the golden plover and of the woodcock were found 
to be especially suitable. : 


Repropuction or Dxsmips.—Prof. Leidy, at a late meeting of 
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, made some re- 
marks on the mode of reproduction and growth of the Desmids. 
In illustration he described a common species of Docidium or Pleu- 
rotenium. This consists of a long cylindroid cell constricted at 
the middle and slightly expanded each side of the constriction. 
When the plant is about to duplicate itself the cell-wall divides 
transversely at the constriction. From the open end of each half- 
cell there protrudes a colorless mass of protoplasm defined by the 
primordial utricle. The protrusions of the half-cells adhere to- 
gether and continue to grow. The bands of endochrome non 
extend into the protrusions and subsequently keep pace with their 
_ growth. * The protrusions continue to grow until they acquire the 
length and form of the half-cells from which they started. : The 
exterior of the new half-cells thus produced hardens or becomes 
a cell-wall like that of the parent half-cells. In this condition 
two individuals of Docidium are frequently observed hefore mers 
aration. During the growth of the new half-cells the circulation 
of granules in the colorless protoplasm is quite active. In a spe 
cies of Docidium 14™ long by ~;™™ broad, the growth of the new 
half-cells was observed to be at the rate of about $™™ in an hour. 


ANGULAR Apertures.—It is not yet forgotten that at the Lon- 
don examination of the 4 inch lens sent to demonstrate the ma 
sibility of obtaining an excessive angular aperture in immersion 
work on balsam objects, the lens was measured at an adjustment 
of which nothing to the point was known except that it was not a 
position of immersion work at all, nor a recognized maximum PO 
sition for any kind of work; the plain fact being that the er 
plished committee were so bent upon teaching us the familiar fact 
of reduced angle that they seem to have forgotten to look for any 
other possibility in the case. Nor is it likely to be forgotten J 
long as Mr. Wenham so far forgets his usual and admirable pae 
as to allude to the correction of this palpable mistake as an 
quibble,” nor while the eminent President of the Royal Microscop- 
ical Society utters in his formal address such an astounding "a 
ment as the following :—*“ The lens in this instance was proper e | 
corrected as a dry lens, and then after measurement in air iY 


Teh ot sili 


SS On ae 


re Nag OS REISS Em SUA CN Ela ed Bp ag ee ween 6S aA 


$ 


Be eE O aha Ea a a N 
= Sar, 


sae 


~ 


_ Objective is used dry ; so that by no trick o 


MICROSCOPY. 699 


measured in water and then in very fluid Canada balsam without 
alteration of the adjustment. It may be quite possible that if the 
lens had been readjusted so as to give the best image for immer- 
sion in balsam, a slightly greater angle might have been obtained ; 
but this would not have been a fair way of making a comparison as 
it is not the mode in which the glass would ever be employed in 
actual practice.” By not saying squarely, Jt is probably true that 
if the lens had been readjusted so as to give the best image for im- 
mersion in water, a greater angle would have been obtained; and 
this would have been the fair way of making the measurement, as it 
is the mode in which the glass wauld be employed in actual practice, 
Mr. Brooke lost a rare opportunity to do a noble if not a generous 
act. As he is well known to be incapable of an intentional sophis- 
try which by adroitly worded phrase should suggest a doubt where 
none is felt, belittle the concessions which are called for by mani- 
fest truth, and say one thing which is true but has no relation to 
the case at issue, and at the same time imply another thing which 
does relate to the case but is unqualifiedly incorrect, there is no 
choice but to conclude that his extraordinary statement, notwith- 
standing its tone of judicial coolness, was made without that de- 
liberation which the official character of the address demanded. 
On the other hand a still more recent lens by the same maker, 
claiming still more excessive aperture, has been examined by Mr. 
Wenham by his method of cutting off false light described in the 
August number of the Naturauist. By this method, which would 
seem incapable of excluding any image-forming rays, he succeeded 
in obtaining a clear and distinctly limited angle for the lens whose 
light, when not thus protected, was vague and uncertain; the an- 
gular aperture at the same time being reduced from “‘ 180°” to 
“112°” which corresponded within a few degrees with the aperture 
computed trigonometrically from the width of the front lens and 
the length of the working focus. To this it is answered that with 
a dry object on the cover there is no distance involved and the 
triangle is impracticable ; while accurate focussing upon 4 stop 
Which is feasible at “uncovered” adjustment, is liable to error 
from spherical aberration when adjusted for maximum angle. Mr. 
Tolles’ method of demonstrating the utilization of extra-limital 
Tays is by placing a central stop upon the posterior surface of the 
back system of lenses, so large as to cut off all light when the 
f illumination can the 


700 MICROSCOPY. 


light be made to pass through the narrow ring of clear aperture 
remaining around the stop; but if water be flowed in both above 
and below the balsam-mounted object, converting both the objec- 
tive and the illuminating semi-cylinder into immersion arrange- 
ments, a well lighted and defined image is immediately produced. 
With regard to extreme angles in connection with dry objects, Mr. 
Tolles claims that his much-disputed 4 inch does actually form an 
image with the most oblique rays that can impinge upon the slide, 
all other rays being cut off by a card or shutter which can be 
moved up close to the bottom of the slide. 


A FINDER FOR MICROSCOPES WİTH PLAIN STAGE.—À writer in 
“ Science Gossip” advises a horizontal line ruled across the centre 
of the stage from side to side. Vertical lines are ruled across this 
an inch each side of the centre. A large label, say nine-tenths of 
an inch square, is fixed to each end of the slide: When the ob- 
ject is in position these labels are marked with lines or dots to 
correspond with the stage-lines below, and by these can easily be 
returned to the same position on the same stage or any stage ruled 
exactly to match. Several objects may be indicated on the same 


slide by as many marks, and a memorandum preserved recording 


which marks indicate each object; thus 4-7 or 4 records that the 
object is indicated by the fourth vertical and the seventh horl- 
zontal dot or line. 


Tue RIGHT-ANGLED Prism AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE MIRROR FOR 
TRANSMITTED LIGHT .— Mr. Ingpen uses an achromatic doublet, 
plano-convex, which can be placed when desired close to one side 
of the right-angled prism for transparent illumination, thus mak- 
ing the prism available as a substitute for both plane and concave 
mirrors, while the usual form where the condensing lenses are 
balsamed to the prism is useless for giving parallel light. 


- APPARATUS FOR GIVING PRESSURE TO OBJECTS WHILE DRYING: 
Though spring clips of various kinds are chiefly employed for - 
purpose, yet a more compact and controllable arrangement 18 
sometimes preferred. A mounting board is often arranged to 20" 
the slides while pressure-rods tipped with cork rest upon the oor 
glasses and give the required pressure ; these rods being held in = 
vertical position by being passed through loops of wire oF through 
a couple of perforated shelves one above the other, while à 
pulled down with the required degree of force by elastic | 


Set 


they re 


MICROSCOPY. 701 
passing over or through them and fastened to hooks or rings be- 
low. Such an apparatus, figured and described in “ Martin’s Man- 
ual of Microscopic Mounting,” p. 28, is inconvenient chiefly by 
reason of the difficulty of varying pressure by means of the elastic 
band. Mr, C. E. Hanaman suggests the employment, as a substi- 
tute for the rods, of glass tubes loaded with shot or mercury so as 
to give the required pressure by their weight. By merely un- 
Corking the tube and pouring a little mercury in or out all neces- 
sary changes of pressure may be secured, or the different tubes 
may be kept filled to different heights and the proper one chosen 
in each case. 


Tue xew Tyre Prate.—Méller has brought out another of his 
exquisite plates. This time he photographs, upon the centre of a 
glass cover, a square of about one-sixth of an inch composed of 
eighty circles surrounded by a black background with the name of 
a different diatom photographed under each circle. In the centre 
of each circle is mounted a diatom corresponding to the label be- 
low, two specimens being often introduced to show different views 
of the same form; of course all is arranged in inverted position 

on the slide, but under the microscope appears as described. The 
objects are mounted between two thin glasses which are set in a 
brass plate three and a quarter inches long and one and a quarter 

ide. 


Fixtna Dratoms.—Mr. J. K. Jackson, in a communication to 
“Science Gossip” laments that the best “diatomaniacs” hold so 
tightly the secret of their mounting, and details his own experi- 
ence for the assistance of others. The diatoms are carefully 
cleaned and a dip of the material containing them evaporated on 
a slip which is then placed under a 1} inch objective. The covers 
on which to mount have been previously glazed with gum by put- 
ting on the centre of each, carefully cleaned, a small drop of a 
Solution formed of an ounce of freshly distilled water and five or 
six drops of a freshly prepared solution of gum tragacanth or 
arabic; a number of covers being prepared at once on a wooden 
rack and dried over a hot plate in order to leave the least possible 
Opportunity for exposure to the ‘‘ vile inappreciable dust” of the 
room. With a hair from a cow’s neck, mounted in a wooden han- 
dle, a diatom is picked out from the dip, at the rate of from eight 
to ten per minute and disengaged from the hair by dabbing it on 


> 


702. NOTES. 


the glazed cover. When sufficient have been thus transferred to 
form a device, as a star, cross, initials, etc., they are placed under 
the 14 inch and with the hair they are, with patience as well as 
tact, pushed, coaxed and driven into the required position, taking 
care to leave the valves on their backs to avoid insurmountable 
trouble with air bubbles. The objects are then fixed by bringing 
them close to the mouth and moistening by a long slow breath. 
After drying again on the hot plate they may be freely mounted in 
balsam which may even be boiled if desired and the mounting 
finished at once. Only on the calmest of days can sufficient im- 
munity from dust be obtained for successful work ; and the care 
of the eyes should never be forgotten during this straining work. 


Tue Popura Scate.—Mr. Charles Brooke, in his President's 
Address before the Royal Microscopical Society, gives the follow- 
ing cool and excellent criticism on this much debated subject. 
“ The writer, reviewing this subject under the dictates of common 
sense, when observing the familiar Podura notes of admiration 
well defined and free from colour, cannot resist the inference that 
in the objective all aberrations are nicely balanced, and the object 
truly represented in the visual image; on the contrary, when the 
same object is viewed as rows of ill-defined beads loaded with col- 
ours, it is difficult to avoid suspecting that the appearance is a 
spectral illusion, resulting from some unexplained diffraction a 
interference ; and this suspicion can hardly be dispelled from his 
mind by anything short of rigid mathematical demonstration.” 


NOTES. 

Mr. Jons E. Gavit, President of the American Note Company of 
New York, died at his residence, Stockbridge, Mass., on the 26t 
of August, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. It is rare that one 
finds in the busy walks of life a man who, while filling an oioi 
demanding constant attention, unlimited resource of iive 
executive ability and diplomacy as well, should yet find time to 
familiarize himself with the various branches of science, not ae 
understanding them thoroughly, but capable of appreciating pe 
_ discussing their bearings with those specially engaged in t 
ject. Of a man of such varied attainments, one would naturally ask, 
why he had not published the results of his work,—had not made 
known his inventions. Various reasons may be given: first the 


. 


NOTES. 703 


unceasing and continuous demands of his business rendered it im- 
possible for him to carry on an uninterrupted line of investigation. 
Above all things he abhorred the hasty publishing of novelties. 
In this respect he was perhaps hypercritical. 

Nothing could be too complete for him, and to this demand on 
his part for as near approach to absolute perfection as possible, 
the country is indebted for the exquisite work presented by the 
Bank Note Company of which he was chief executive officer. 

His power to detect merit was noteworthy, and many a young 
man can look back to Mr. Gavit for the incentive first given him 
to work, and to thank him too for placing the standard to be at- 
tained high above that level aimed at by most workers. While 
his science came in as arelief from his business duties, one was 
surprised to hear him converse freely on such diverse subjects as 
architecture and deep sea explorations, fertilization of flowers, 
geology, and the whole range of biological science. 

To hear him was not to listen to what any intelligent man might 
know regarding such topics, but it was to gather the latest views 
and to hear something new. In fact one could never talk with 
him without seeing old facts placed in a new light and new facts 


Mr. Gavit was best known as a microscopist, his collection of 
stands, objectives, and other apparatus being one of the finest in 
the country.—E. S. Morse. 

Ir will be remembered that Capt. Hall went as far north as 82° 
16. This has been exceeded by two Austrian explorers, Payer 
and Weyprecht, who penetrated into the frozen sea north of Si- 
beria and discovered two hundred nautical miles north of Nova 
Zembla a mountainous country with glaciers and some vegetation 
and game, which they named Francis-Joseph Land. This was 
about one thousand miles in length so far as observed, and the 
northernmost point reached was Cape Vienna in latitude 83°. 

A LOBSTER farm, as we learn from “N ature,” has been established 
near Boston. On the seaward side it is closed by banks, having 
hatches or sluices so as to admit of the flow and ebb of the tide. 
Last summer about 40,000 lobsters of all sizes were deposited in 


_ this ground. In the winter 15,000 fine lobsters were sold. We 


should be glad to hear of the further success of this important 
undertaking. 


704 BOOKS RECEIVED. 


‘* THE Sandwich Naturalist Association ” was recently organ- 
ized at Sandwich, Illinois. The following officers were elected :— 
Nahum E. Ballou, M. D. President, Prof. A. E. Bourne, Secretary, 
and Frank M. Webster, Treasurer. 


THERE is a new floorcloth, said to be made of ground cork and 
glue on a foundation of canvas, which would be an economical 
substitute for sheet cork for lining insect boxes. — EGBERT BAGG, 
Jr., Ulica, N. Y. 


Tue famous geologist, M. Elie de Beaumont, recently died in 
Paris at the age of 76. In 1856 he was made Perpetual Secretary 
of the French Academy, succeeding Arago. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Till Algernes Systematik, By J. G. Agardh. 1872. pp.7l. 8yo. 
ane pas of the Circulation ion By 9. B J. Bell bnini London, 1874. pp. 402. With 
ates, Svo 


pp. 20. ates. nie 
Ofversigt af de geologiska fo: rhallandena vid Hallandsas. By David Hummel. Stoczholm, 
1872. igh og Moa Dlg map and cuts, 8yo, Im, 1978. 
Ueber die Geognosie der schwedischen Hochgebirge. By A. E. Tornebohm, Stockholm, 
pp. 60. With spot nin ate . vo. Monte- 
Pinse raay n Cocoon ane ng ct — Bo on vee Ma Lower Amazonas, The Erere- 
Alegre trict and the e- Ch. Fre artt. 
mo iy, ea n Bra “ie 0 rA Bra rovince o; ALAA, aran py Banan Rathbun. 
organ Expeditions, 70-’71. Buffalo, 174. pp. 201-26 th plates, 
Description de la formation carhonijorns de ia Boonies: D y Edouard Erdmann, Stockholm, 
1873. pp. oe bby mape peg cuts. n ; sia 
Annuatre de la Societe Americai ne. is, 1873, pp. 

m nagra gogan ingar frau Szerig i es och Norges * Primordialzon.” By J. G. O. Linnarsson. 
errom, pp t piae VO, cuts. 
Les livraisons de la Carte Geologique de la Suede, Nos. 46-49. Stockholm, 1873. With 
o. 94, 
Magnetische und Meteorologische Beobachtungen, By Carl Hornstein. Prague, 1873. PP- 

h 
Aa tate Societe Prone Y pren Paris, 1873. Tome troisieme. pp. S04. wit 
plates. 8vo. 


Die a 
Nes Sean a i is rgy. B gym Henry, E TE P. Putnam’s Sons, PPab 
ew Yor ri pp. Ps ustrated. 0, > s 
sft Introduction to the Study of General Hiology. By Thomas C. MacGinley. G. r 
ers, New Yor 4. . 200, SVU. 75 som i 

Geùlogicat Survey of Indiana, By É. T. Cox. Indianapolis, 1874. pp. 494 With plates a! 
maps ntreal 
Falsozoi € Fossils. Vol. ii, Part 1. Geological Survey of Canada. By E. Billings. Mo 
pp. l4. With plates. Svo, 2. pp 105 - 44. 
Baton a, = CRO Society of Natural Sciences, Buffalo, 1874. Vol. ii, No. z 


With 0. 
prange on the D redyings in the Region of St, George’s Banks in 1872, By 8.1. Smith and 
Harger. pp. 57. With pilates. 8vo. 
Societe Entomologique de Belgique. Serie ii. No.2. Aug. 1, 1874. iBd. 2 With plates. 


by itt sah ap acs Jur Naturwissenschaft, Jena, 1874. viii Bd. N.F. 
177 - 336. o 4. PP 
E Annual Report of the Trustees of the New York State Library. Albany, a a 


é and Titenty-jifth Annual Report on the New York State Museu m8. gvo. 1873, 
cea 1873. With fates. pp. 22. b2, Bvo, 2th Repor std nd plates. DP Pies. By Aug: Be 
ons nty-one yf 
iat. (Bull. Bur Soe. Nat. bel, ener 3.) 8V0. f "M 
Species. of Moths Pigured in ) ne Natural History of New York ae. 
—_ hose ae Ae ull. B. 5. ao pp. 164- 168.) G. P. Putnam's 
Sons, Pub her Ne "Xo poi At. pd Sy Mar pune dee ae 
> a ew "i = . e 
The Transit of Vi By George Fo Macmillan & Co., Publishers. London and 
York, 187: Tlustrated. pp. 99. {hy ie E 


pe ae E UO 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vol. VIIL.— DECEMBER, 1874.—No. 12. 
CT VTORD OD D> 


’ IMBRICATIVE ZESTIVATION. 


- BY A. P. MORGAN. 


1. Tue arrangement of the different parts of the flower in the 
bud is called œstivation or prefloration. Aistivation has refer- 
ence chiefly to the relative arrangement in the bud of the sepals 

_ and petals. The æstivation of the floral envelopes passes by 
= Several gradations from the regular alternate arrangement of 

leaves, in which the parts are situated at different heights one 

above another, to the complete whorled arrangement in which the 

parts are all placed at the same level, edge to edge. 
2 2. There are distinguished three principal kinds of sstivation 
_ denominated respectively the imbricative, the contortive and the 
= Valvular. The latter presents no variety except the infolding of 
= the edges of the leaves which, however, does not concern their 
= Yelative arrangement in the bud; and contortive æstivation ex- 
hibits no variation except in the direction of the twist which may 
be either from left to right or from right to left. It is our pur- | 
Pose to give an analysis of imbricative sstivation and to endeavor 
to systematize its variability. 

3. In imbricative estivation some parts of the floral whorl over- 
lie others like shingles on a roof: that is, certain parts are wholly 
external while others are wholly internal. There is usually a more 
_ less evident spiral arrangement of the parts; the spiral making 
_ be or more turns to form the whorl. When the direction of the 


4 


s r3 

aa Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by the PEABODYZACADEMY OF: 
SCIENCE, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. i J 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 45 (705) 


706 IMBRICATIVE ASTIVATION. 


spiral in all the flowers of plants of the same kind is uniformly 
from left to right or with the hands of a watch, the parts of the 
whorl may be termed imbricate+-; when the direction of the 
Fig. 110, spiral is uniformly from right to left or con- 
2 trary to the hands of a watch, the parts are 
imbricate—. If, however, the spiral does 
not maintain a uniform direction, but winds 
in some flowers of the plant to the right and 
in others to the left, the parts of the whorl 

may be termed imbricate +. 
4. Imbricative æstivation is the most 
common arrangement of both sepals and 
petals. It admits of much variety dependent upon the number 
and the relative position of the external and internal parts. 
Also, this variety of arrangement is displayed much more in the 

corolla than in the calyx. 

5. In a dimerous imbricate whorl, the two edges of one part 
overlap both edges of the other part (Fig. 110), as in the calyx 
of the Spring Beauty (Claytonia Caroliniana). This is an alter- 
nate two-ranked arrangement. 


6. In a trimerous imbricate whorl, one part is wholly external, 


one is wholly internal and the third is intermediate, that is, has 


Fig. 111. Fig. 112. 
+ — 


one edge in and the other edge out, as in the calyx and corolla of 

Trillium. Here there is an obvious spiral arrangement and the 

successive members of the cycle may be numbered 1, 2 and 3. 
The spiral makes a single turn to the right or to the feft at- 


cording as 3 lies to the right or left of 1, and the whorl is imbri- 


cate-+ (Fig. 111), or imbricate— (Fig. 112), accordingly- TP 
is the 3-ranked or 4 arrangement of leaves. ne 
7. A tetramerous imbricate whorl presents two cases- ; 


‘ 


IMBRICATIVE STIVATION. 707 


first case two opposite parts are wholly external, and the other 

two opposite parts are wholly internal (Fig. 113), as in the calyx 

of cruciferous flowers. This is the case of opposite decussate 

leaves. In the second case one part is external, one internal, and 
Fig. 113. Fig. 114. 


Fig. 115. Fig. 116. 
3+ a — 


_ the other two intermediate. In this case there are two varieties, 
a according as the internal part. is opposite or adjacent to the ex- 
_ ternal part. When the internal part is adjacent, there is an evi- 
dent spiral arrangement. Numbering the parts 1, 2, 3 and 4, 
: Fig. 117. Fig. 118. 

i Š 


eo a {- A 


the spiral makes one turn to the right (Fig. 115), or to the left 
(Fig. 116), according as 4 is on the right or left of 1. This is 
i the common arrangement of the petals of cruciferous flowers. 
The internal part may sometimes be seen opposite (Fig. 114) in 


l; 


708 IMBRICATIVE STIVATION. 


the same flowers ; this is the arrangement of the four sepals of the 
White Water Lily (Nymphcea odorata). 

8. A pentamerous imbricate whorl, also, presents two cases. 

I. Two parts of the floral whorl are external, two parts are in- ; 
ternal and one is intermediate (Figs. 117, 118). This is regular 
pentamerous imbrication. It corresponds to the quincuncial or 2 k 
arrangement of leaves. The spiral makes two turns to form the 
whorl. The successive members of the cycle may be numbered 
1, 2, 3,4 and 5 (Figs. 117, 118). 1 and 2 are the external parts; 

4 and 5 are the internal parts; and 3 is the intermediate part. 1 
has 3 and 4 adjacent and 2 and 5 opposite. One edge of 3 is cov- _ 
ered by the adjacent edge of 1, while the other edge of 3 overlaps 
the adjacent edge of 5. The succession of the numbers of the 
cycle in the whorl, in one direction, is 1, 4, 2, 5, 3; in the other 
direction, 1, 3, 5, 2,4. 8 shows the direction of the spiral ; when — 
it lies on the right of 1, the spiral winds from left to right, amt 
the parts of the whorl are imbricate + (Fig. 117) ; when it lies on 
the left of 1, the spiral winds from right to left, and the parts are 
imbricate — (Fig. 118). 

II. One part of the floral whorl is external, one part is internal 
and three parts are intermediate. This is irregular pentamerous 
imbrication. There are two varieties of this case, according % 
the internal part is opposite or adjacent to the external part. 


BORE Tecan SPS Se ae ame ae eee 
Spee 2 ies ro eee eee 


_ 


a 


Rte eae 


Set 


penis So bibles 


Fig. 119. Fig. 120. 
+ —_ 


_ throws out one edge over the adjacent edge of 2; 50 
and 4 have one edge out and one edge in, the same 48 5: eo 
between 1 and 5 still shows the direction of the spiral. sass 
the æstivation of papilionaceous flowers. In these the large petal 
called the vexillum or banner overlaps the others, and on er : 


E ENS ae oe 


IMBRICATIVE XZSTIVATION. 709 


count this variety has been termed vewillary imbrication. This 
variety of imbrication, however, occurs frequently im the flowers 
of many plants along with the regular imbrication, as shown in 
the examples of Rubus odoratus and Pyrola elliptica (Tables I 
and IT). When the internal part is adjacent to the external part 


ee 
Nae 


(Figs. 121, 122), the spiral makes but a single turn to form the 
whorl. The direction of the spiral is shown by 5 lying on the 
right or on the left of 1. This second variety is perhaps to be 
met with only as a casual variation from the other modes. I know 
of no flowers in which it is the only mode of æstivation, but the 
extent to which it occurs in many flowers is shown by the example 
of Rubus odoratus (Table I). 


Fig. 123. Fig. 124. 
4 a 
5 5 : 


2 
2 


I i 
; 9. The second variety of irregular imbrication passes easily 
into contortive æstivation by 5 throwing out one edge over 
This also is shown by some of the flowers of Rubus odoratus 


Passing into the contorted mode 


10. The imbrication of the flower sometimes shows a fixed re- 
lation to the axis, and whether there be such a relation or not, 


needs to be carefully observed. When the inflorescence is definite 


the flower terminates the axis and of course there is no other re- 


lation. Hence the position of the external and internal parts is 


# 


Jal Relea IMBRICATIVE ASTIVATION. 


immaterial in diagram. When the inflorescence is indefinite, how- 
ever, the external petal sometimes maintains a fixed relation to 
the axis. For instance, in papilionaceous flowers, the external 
petal is always the posterior one. In the violet the external petal 
may be either the right or left upper petal, the lower spurred petal 
being always internal. In many plants on the contrary, some of 
the flowers commence the spiral at one part of the whorl, and 
other flowers at other parts of the whorl. This is shown by the 
example of Pyrola elliptica (Table II.) 

11. For the purpose of observing and recording the mode of 
imbrication in a pentamerous flower for example, rule a table as 
follows (Table I): 

n the Table, I denotes the first case or regular imbrication; I 
denotes the second case or irregular imbrication ; while 1 and 2 
indicate the first and second variety of II. Each example 1$ 
marked by the direction of the spiral. Summing up the observa- 
tions of 100 flowers of Rubus odoratus, examined for the illustra- 
tion of this article, they show the following variety of arrange- 
ment : 

Calyx, imbricate. 

Case I. + 54, —46. Total, 100. 

Corolla, imbricate. 

Case I. + 22,—10. Total, 32. 

Case IT. 
1y.+14,—13. Total, 27. 
2v.+20,—13. Total, 33. 

Corolla, contorted, 

+4,— 4. Total, 8. 
Total + 60, — 40. 


Fe E E Se ee lg Sn rs a fe 39 fg Soe 


IMBRICATIVE ASTIVATION. š TIF 


TABLE I. 
Rubus odoratus L. 
K Calyx, imbricate. Corolla, imbricate. 
ined. I II j I II 
Ape 1 2 
1 Sna v 
ee Beir ag 
3 pe eres aie ee ae ae 
gate es ae) paren re T 
pager pe ee es 
re oe ee oe 
pl ee 
Ar og ge 
9 — Pon ee a 
10 + =o ee ee B 
11 = aed A T 
12 — = an T 
13 Ss i 
14 + = T 
$ Le 


[TABLE II] CASE I. 
No. 1 2 3 4 5 
3 Bice: p' a p P 
2 1 V P a p' 
: J 

18 at 1 p’ a p 
4 Y Pp a p’ 1 
16 p r 1 p’ a 
2 p a p’ i i 
3 p’ a p U 1 
1 F. p a 

p F 1 p’ 

CASE II. 1. 

ae ges a p’ 

Pos p j 

P a p’ ee 

1 E p a 

a p' 1l r 

1 Y pP a 

a p r 1 

p’ 1 v P 

Pi p 1 a 
oS r p’ PS 

ee oe ee 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 713 


12. For the purpose of observing and recording both the 
imbrication of the whorl and the relation of its parts to the 
axis, I make a diagram of the flower Fig. 125. 

(Fig. 125) and rule a table as on the oe 
opposite page (Table IT): ; 

In this diagram of the corolla of Py- p t 
rola elliptica (Fig. 125) p and p’ denote 
the upper or posterior petals ;7 and V the , 
lateral petal; and a, the anterior or lower T 

etal 


tal. 

In Table II the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 se BERD A 
represent the successive parts of the NE 
spiral. The Table shows the summing ilies 
up of one hundred observations of the imbrication of the corolla 
of Pyrola elliptica Nutt. 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES.* II. 


BY DR. AUGUST WEISSMANN. 


Ris AP 

Wuar appears most unusual in the development of the Muscidæ 
is the genesis of the thorax and head together with their append- 
ages. That this section of the fly’s body is completely formed 
anew, not standing in ‘genetic connection with the corresponding 
parts of the larva, contradicts the generally accepted and long 
prevalent view, according to which pupation is only a moulting 
process. As little does: this opinion agree with the fact of the 
total transformation which all the inner organs suffer during pu- 
pation. All the systems of the organs of the larva die, in part 
completely, in part cell by cell, in order afterwards to be built up 
anew. 


Evidently the metamorphosis of Corethra stands in diametrical 
Opposition to this mode of development, and indeed to the two 
previously described main points. Here the pupation may be 
tightly regarded as a moulting process; we see no phenomena ac- 
*Being the concluding chapter of “Die Metamorphose der 
ein weiterer Beitrag zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Insecte: 
Weissmann. Mit. 5 Kupfertafeln. Leipzig, 1866. 8v0, pp. 83. 


Corethra plumicornis, — 
n. Von Dr. August 


y 


714 THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 


- companying the process, which cannot be brought under this head. 
The nature of the moulting process I see in this, that the layer of 
cells, which we regard as the hypodermis, and which appears as a 
skin split apart from the chitinous skin, after certain changes of 
form, develops a new chitinous skin, and that this takes place with- 
out any solution of continuity of the same. The change of form 
may arise merely through simple growth, accompanied by a more 
or less considerable remodelling ; or it may be due to the forma- 
tion of new, or to the disappearance of parts already present. 
The latter occurs through shrinkage, the former to a growing out 
of the hypodermis. It is the hypodermis which generally imparts 
to the insect its form, from which the formation of the appendages 
of the segments proceeds, the typical as well as the accessory. 


The mere remodelling of the parts of the body already present we | 


saw fully illustrated in the Corethra larva; thus the head gradually 
takes on a different form, the mandibles, in the young larva beset 
with long, slender bristles, afterward..become thick, massive, rap- 
torial jaws, with sharp teeth, etc. But most instructive are these 
relations in the antennz, where indeed a less change of form, rather 
than a considerable increase in size may be noticed at each moult. 


This is accompanied, as we have seen, by a complete pushing 1D-, 


wards of the hypodermis, whereby is afforded in the only possible 
way an important space for the increase in size. After the split- 
ting off of the old chitinous skin the stretched hypodermis-layet 
again turns back throughout its length and breadth. No more 
direct proof can be given for the correctness of the view which 
regards the appendages of the segments of Arthropods as protru- 
sions of the skin. 
This occurrence is only important as being a preliminary stage 
for the rise of the antennz of the imago; still this arises through 
a simple, though still deep-reaching remodelling of the larval a 
tennæ, and thus stands in relation with the other typical cephalic 
appendages. No enlargement of the parts takes place, indeed the 
hypodermis is simply loosened and models itself anew, for the 
most part during a perceptible decrease in size, into the antenn® 
of the imago; so for example the mandibles. ` But should, on the 
contrary, an enlargement take place, as in the under lip, 
arises through a pushing up pf the hypodermis from the bone 
of a falling-in of the body wall, and here the difference a 
and form between the new and old organs is so considerable, t 


Flies Se, eee 


then this , a 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 715 


we can rightly indeed regard it as a new formation; the passage 
to the real new formation is here indicated, and we finally see also 
the appendages of the thorax, which in the larva are completely 
4 wanting, certainly developing in the same manner; the simple 
growth of the antenne at each moulting of the larva, the forma- 
tion of the. fly’s beak out of the under lip of the larva, and the 
outgrowth of wings and limbs at places in the hypodermis previ- 
ously wanting them, are also only modifications of one and the 
: same occurrence ; the protrusion of the hypodermis. 

: So far it certainly appears legitimate to regard the formation of 
Corethra as a moulting process. The entire hypodermal skin it is 
which remodels itself, in part shortening, in part elongating and 
: drawn out, but which never loses its continuity. 

But this does happen in the Muscidæ. The hypodermis of the 
anterior larval segments must die, in order that the imaginal disks 
lying within the body cavity on the upper surface, and a new tho- 
rax and head may be composed; evidently a phenomenon which 
exceeds the idea of a moulting. It is a mistake to exceed known 
facts. It were a greater error to conclude from the fact that the 
imaginal disks of the Muscidz are already formed in the embryo, 
that the body of the imago was already formed, as in Corethra, 
in which the wings and limbs begin to grow after the last moult- 
ing. The imaginal disks of Musca are not simply rudiments of 
the appendages of the segments, but really the segment itself; but 
in Corethra the germs of the segments of the imago are already 
present in the egg, not alone in the form of isolated disks, but as 
the complete segments of the larva, which afterwards give rise to 
the appendages, in order to build up the segments of the body of 
the adult insect. “Ihe body of the imago is also on the contrary 
more perfectly formed in the larva of Corethra. 

It is by no means surprising that the appendages of the seg- 
ments of Corethra begin to develop after the last moult of the 
larva. Should they arise earlier, then they would already appear 
during the life of the larva as external parts, the chitinous skin 
which in the process of moulting would separate anew would press 
to the half-formed appendages, and the larva would thus be no 
More a larva, the metamorphosis no more complete, but an incom- 

plete one. A development of the appendages beginning before 
the last moulting would, in a metabolic insect with the mode of 
Pe eponnt of Corethra, be only conceivable if the same previ- 


MEE ok eae > 


eee TET eee 


a oe ee ee TS 


. _ pendages. The imaginal disks of the two anterior limbs are 


716 : THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 


ously originated not as a direct protrusion, but as an invagination, 
also forming no projection on the upper surface of the hypodermis, l 
as in fact seems to be the case in the wings of Lepidoptera. e 
But we will take a nearer glance at the mode in which®he form- 
ation of the appendages and especially those of the thorax takes 
place. Many differences between Musca and Corethra appear, and 
also many resemblances, and indeed in points of great importance, 
so that we must say that the formation of the thoracic appendages 
goes on in the two insects in essentially the same way, and indeed the 
process of formation may be considered as simply local protrusions 
of a broad, flat, basal membrane. This basal membrane is in both 
cases the hypodermis of the thorax, which in Corethra at the time : 
of formation of the appendages at once arises as a whole, while is 
in Musca it exists only in a rudimentary way in the form of many 
pieces separated from one another. Ideally in fact the thorax of 
Corethra consists of twelve such pieces, each one of which is des- 
tined to grow out as an appendage. Only an apparent similarity 
lies in the relation which exists in the two Diptera between the . 
nerves and the newly forming appendages. In Corethra all the 
appendages of the thorax, with the exception of the gills around 
the end of the body are provided with sensible (sensibeln) nerves; 
_ for then with their increasing growth the nerve-stalk will be sur- 
rounded. From the neurilemma of these nerves arises the forma 
tion of the tissues filling the cavity of the appendages ; they form 
a store of cells (zellzucherungen) which are transformed into the 
tracheze, muscles, sinews and nerves of the appendages. Only in 
the origin of the gills, the place of the nerve is supplied by 4 
trachea, which in those organs wanting nerves and muscles cer 
tainly play the same part as the nerve. : : 
he imaginal disks of the Muscide also stand in connection 
with the nerves, but the significance of this fact in regard to the 
development of the appendages is still quite another thing. This 
is due to the fact that not all the disks are attached to nerve-fila- 
ments, as indeed are not all those from which originate similar ap- 


attached to nerves; the hinder spring up from the tracheal gE 
_ without any connection with nerves. The conclusion is inevitable 
that the nerve-stems are here nothing else than points of sust 
ment for the new formations. Certainly it is. evident that the 
nerve passes through the new formation in order to reach the 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 717 


organ lying next to the skin (ganglion or muscle) ; still this is ac- 
complished in quite a different way from the Tipulide, where the 
cavity of the appendages is traversed longitudinally by a nerve 
(at least in the legs), while in Musca the appendage is in fact 
wholly free from nerves, at all events with none of its primitive 
fibres present, and at best may be traversed by such as are formed 
anew during the outgrowth of the appendages. At all events the 
new formation of the tissues filling the cavity do not proceed from 
the neurilemma, but from the nuclei arising from the destruction 
of the fat body. 

But still in the manner and mode, in which the growing limb 
pushes out, there is no inconsiderable difference. 

In Corethra there is at first a completely unjointed cylindrical 
skin which lies wound up in a spiral on the piece of the thorax 
belonging to it; as soon as the new formation has evidently grown 
in length, when the differentiation of the cell-masses of the cavity 
into tissues has advanced, the first traces of joints appear. 

Quite otherwise in Musca, where the segmentation begins at an 
early period and is complete along the whole length of the pro- 
jecting appendage. Even before the growth outwards of the limb 
ever projects up prominently above the level of the basal mem- 
brane, the end of the limb (the fifth tarsal joint), is separated 
from the basal membrane; then with the elongation of the tarsal 
spines, the four other tarsal joints become interpolated, while the 
tibia and fibula still form an unjointed portion, whose complete 
division into the joints of the fly’s limbs occurs after the formation 
of the thorax. During the whole development within the disk the 
limb still remains as a short projection which, without turning, 
stands straight up over its thoracic piece. As soon as the new 
thorax is formed, it begins to grow moderately, and considerably 
later, in the second half of the pupal sleep, the muscles and other 
tissues: arise in the cavity of the appendages, and finally the limb 
assumes its external, definite form. From the last mentioned 
facts, it clearly appears that with the existence of imaginal disks, 
which the muscid larva brings with it out of the egg, no greater 
preparation in fact is made for building up the body of the imago ; 
that here a much more marked transformation must be undergone. 
When Corethra transforms into a pupa, the muscles of the wings 
and limbs are already formed, while in Musca there is not yet the 
first trace to be seen of either; the mouth parts undergo in Co- 


718 THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 


rethra only a final modelling, while in Musca the head does not 
yet appear as a whole, and nothing of the beak is yet formed. 
But if in relation to the external form and formation of the 
tissues in the interior the Corethra larva stands nearer its imago, 
so not less as regards the systems of internal organs. Here also 
we find a complete continuity between larva and pupa; no new 
organs arise in place of the old, but the old either remains the 
same, or are wholly intact, or with only slight changes, as are re- 
quired for the changed mode of life of the animal; thus the dor- 
sal vessel passes wholly unchanged over into the fly, and except 
the slight shortening of the cesophageal ring, the nervous system 
also. Other organs are completed through increase in size in 
some, through concentration and disappearance in other places, as 
for example in the digestive canal, and the sexual organs which 
had long previous been completely formed. Only parts which 
are single become entirely superfluous and disappear and never ar- 
rive at a complete, new structure, independent of the systems of 
organs already present. 
It is wholly otherwise in Musca, where all the systems of organs 
of the larva disappear, and are formed anew from new building 
materials, whether they return to molecules, which mingle with 
the blood, as the hypodermis of the anterior larval segments, as 
all the larval muscles, many of the traches, the anterior part of 
the digestive canal; or whether they pass through that interesting 
process which I havé termed histolysis, and whose nature consists 
in a destruction of the histological elements, without giving UP 
the general form of the organ, and in a succeeding new formation 
from the ruins of the tissues. 

But most remarkable and pregnant is the difference in the pro- 
cesses of growth within the body of the pupa, since in Corethra 
the fat bodies play throughout a very subordinate and scarcely 
perceptible part, while in the Muscide a building up of the inner 
organs without the intervention of this important part of the body 
were not possible. There is need only for the colossal mass of ie 
fat body in the muscid larva; and seeing the thick whitish pap-like 
substance, with the product due to its destruction filling the body- 
cavity of the pupa, we can estimate the true significance of the fat 
body in the development of the Muscide. And it would appear 
that the fat body in these insects is not only a depot of nutritive 
material, but that out of the products arising from its destruction, 


Part ae ps Se ee a 


Aes se Se 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 719 


entirely new histological form-elements arise ; the masses of nuclei 
which fill the body-cavity of the pupa with a compact mass, whose 


` brood of cells, multiplying through endogenesis, arrange them- 


selves into strings and thus form the primitive germs of the tra- 
chew and in fact the muscles. 

Indeed it is difficult to tell out of what material the muscles of the 
wings of the Muscidæ should arise, if not out of the descendants of 
the masses of nuclei. But in Corethra we find the corresponding 
muscles already indicated in the embryo in the form of fine fila- 
ments; but how could this be the case in the Muscidae, where the 
points of attachment of such filaments, the hypodermis of the 
thorax, are not yet present in the larva? And the same conclusion 
follows in regard to the tracheal system of the imago, which in 
Corethra is indicated beforehand, the entire division of the body 
of the imago answering to the corresponding segments of the 
larva— which in Musca can only arise when these regions are 
formed, i. e., in the course of the pupal life. 

Thus in every relation a much less morphological connection ex- 
ists between larva and imago in the Muscids, than in the Tipulids, 
and in this fact is to be sought the reason for the relation of the 
duration of larval life to the long pupal stage.* 

In Sarcophaga it requires eighteen days from the pupation to the 
exclusion of the fly, in Corethra only three. However, on the other 

nd the life of the larva of Sarcophaga lasts only eight days, 
in Corethra three or more weeks, and this difference cannot alone 
be referred to the wholly opposite mode of nourishment of the two 

æ, which makes it possible in the Musca larva to suffer a great 
mass of food to pass in a few days through its intestine, while the 


Corethra living by robbery only slowly procures food. The evi- 


dence lies in the very long interval, which separates the last moult- 
_ Ing of the larva from the pupation in Corethra. It is surely not 
Unimportant or adventitious, but will be met with in cases where 


the origination and completion of the appendages of the imago 
must take place within this period. 

The pupa of Corethra manifestly differs in morphological . as 
aune ana ee 


_* Evidently it is only the relative, not the absolute duration of the pupa-stage, which 
onside: i i 


vary in one and the same species between wide limits; 


720 THE METAMORPHOSIS OF FLIES. 


well as physiological relations from the pupa of the Muscide; 


it’does not become the imago, but it is nothing else from the start, i 
and undergoes only a slight completion, in order to slip out from 
the pupa-skin as a winged and sexually mature insect. A pupa- E 


sleep in the true sense it thus completely lacks, all functions of 
animal life in the pupa go on uninterruptedly, only the act of | 
taking food ceases. All the occurrences which fill out the interval :. 
of latent life in Musca, during which the blood no more circulates, ; 
every sensation and movement, as well as the taking of food—every 
act which may go under the head of ‘formation of the pupa” fall 
in Corethra into the larval period, and the pupal stage is to be i 
compared with the two last days of the Muscid pupa; when still 
in this respect the almost fully formed insect stands near its final 
perfection, since it, if artificially freed from its tun-shaped case, | 
is more or less movable and lively. RN 

Finally, we may distinguish two diametrically opposed forms of : 
insect metamorphosis; the one represented by Corethra stands 4 
nearest to development without metamorphosis; the other repre- 
sented by Musca is farthest removed from the ametabolic develop- 
ment and is the most extreme form of metamorphosis. Expressed 
in a very general way, the difference between the two consists 1n 
this, that at one time a continuous, at another a discontinuous de 
velopment occurs, in the sense, namely, that the parts of the body 
and organs of one stage of development originate directly from 
the similar parts of the foregoing stage ; or if such is not the cast, 
rather the parts of the body and internal organs of the later stages 
of development are substantially new formations. 

e may briefly characterize the two modes somewhat thu aie 

Type Corethra. The larval segments are converted directly into 
the corresponding divisions of the imago; the appendages of the. 
head into the corresponding ones of the head of the imago; those ; 
the thorax arise after the last moult of the larva, as outgrowths of 


BiT 


indicated even in the egg. The genital glands date p 
bryo, and are gradually developed; all the other systems of orga” 


THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PLIES. 721 
pass with little or no alteration into the imago. Fatty body none or 
inconsiderable. Pupa state short and active. 

Type Musca. ‘Thorax and head of the imago arising independ- 
ently from the corresponding divisions of the hypodermis of the 
larva; only the abdomen directly through the transformation of the 
eight hinder larval segnients. Thorax and head with their append- 
ages develop from imaginal disks, which are of embryonal origin 
and are attached within the cavity of the body to nerves or trachea. 
Immediately after the formation of a tun-shaped pupa case from the 
chitinous skeleton of the larva, the imaginal disks grow together into 
the thorax and head. Destruction of all the systems of larval or- 
gans, either total or through histolysis. New formation of the same 
by means of the masses of nuclei arisingout of the destruction of 
the fatty body. Genital glands indicated in the embryo have a con- 
tinuous further development. Pupa state lasting for a long time 
and with a latent life. 

The two types are most sharply distinguished from each other 
by the presence or absence of true imaginal disks, and I might for 
this reason suggest dividing those insects having a a 
into Insecta discota and adiscota.* 

A subsequent memoir remains to be prepared, in which an effec- 
tive division is to be made showing what families belong to one 
and what to the other group. It may be here previously observed, 
that the two groups do not stand completely opposed, without 
transitions, but that there are intermediate forms; indeed whole 
families, perhaps whole orders of insects may on account of the 
want of imaginal disks be regarded as Insecta adiscota, while their 
development in other respects may closely join them to the discota. 


Tio itali Sa Oe ee Jatin th th 


AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 46 


ON THE COTTON WORM OF THE SOUTHERN 
STATES (ALETIA ARGILLACEA Hubner). 


BY AUG. R. GROTE. 

Tue earliest * scientific name for the cotton worm is given by 
Jacob Hübner in the second hundred of his “Supplement to the 
Collection of Exotic Lepidoptera,” dated 1822.° The moth is there 
figured in two positions under the numbers 399 and 400, and de- 
scribed under the name Aletia argillacea on page 32. Although 
the insect has subsequently received different names, this name of 
Hibner’s is the one it should in future bear. For the name 
« Anomis xylina,” now in scientific use, I am responsible. In the 
year 1864, in the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of 
Philadelphia, I referred the Noctua aylina of Thomas Say to 
Hiibner’s genus Anomis, as defined by M. Guenée, and regarded 
as synonymous the Anomis bipunctina of the latter author. 

With the true type of the genus Anomis, the Anomis erosa of 
Hübner, I have since then become familiar, and I find that it 
differs structurally and generically from the cotton worm moth, 
which latter must accordingly remain under the combined: title 
originally proposed for it by Hübner. 

e different stages of Aletia, as it is found throughout the 
cotton belt of the Southern States, have been faithfully portrayed 
by Professor Townend Glover, of the Agricultural Department 
in Washington. On the Professor’s plates numerous other insect 
depredators on the cotton plant are excellently portrayed, and this 
work (I believe as yet unpublished) ought certainly to be issued by 4 
the Legislatures of the different states interested in cotton cultures 
or indeed by the General Government, and publicly distribatet a i 
that a knowledge of the economy of these parasites be MINS” 
For his manuscript work, Professor Glover has ind 
medal from the late Emperor of the French (a nati 
profuse in acknowledgment) but, if I am correctly info 
more substantial reward has as yet crowned Professor Glov oe 


i 
th 


° i of 
*I am indebted to Dr. Hagen for the bibliography of the Noctua gossypt' 9 
cius. T holt. “this to be a distinct p R from the Aletia and probably 


Pt ee tae SS 


THE COTTON WORM. 723 


praiseworthy efforts for the advancement of knowledge and the 
consequent amelioration of his race. 

In the Second Report on the Insects of Missouri, Professor C. 
V. Riley notices the cotton worm, and illustrates the moth by a 
wooucut, in which the insect’is represented head downward in a 
state of rest. The moth is drawn in this position on the authority 
of a gentleman in Texas, and the subject is treated throughout, 
and indeed necessarily, by Professor Riley, at second-hand. In 
Professor Riley’s Sixth Report (published this year) the cotton 
worm is again discussed under similar conditions, while the posi- 
tion of the moth in a state of rest has now become normal. It is 
however claimed, in this Report, that the cotton worm ‘ hiber- 
nates” as a moth, and the credit of this observation is given to 
the Second Report, while the discovery of the fact is claimed to 
have been, Mane by what Professor Riley calls the process of 
“ analo 

It is the object of the present paper to throw, happily, some 
light on the biography of the cotton worm as it occurs in the 
Southern States, and in so doing I think it will become apparent 
that Professor C. V. Riley has regarded the same subject from an 
erroneous standpoint, having considered the cotton worm as be- 
longing to our fauna, and accordingly misunderstood its economy 


-as displayed with us and far from its natural abode. And here, 


while I am obliged to differ on a scientific question with Prof. 
Riley, I bear willing testimony to the great good achieved by the 
publication of the Missouri Reports. 

The Aletia argillacea, or cotton worm, is an insect belonging to 
the Noctuæ, a group of nocturnal moths. It is one of a number 


of intertropical or southern forms, somewhat nearly allied to our 


more thickly scaled and northern genus Plusia. The caterpillar 
is a “half-looper,” to use a common term, and the chrysalis 
is held within an exceedingly loose web on the plant, the few 
threads usually binding over the edge of the leaf and of them- 
selves furnishing’ no adequate protection to the pupa. [I here 
exhibit to the Association specimens of the larva, pupa and moth 


_ of Aletia]. Technical descriptions of the different stages are al- 


ready extant and so may be passed over here. The more imme- 


= diate question for our solution is the consecutive history of the 
_ insect, so that we may be prepared to offer suggestions to the 
agriculturists for its destruction. 


‘G24 THE COTTON WORM. 


The region over which, during five seasons, I have observed the 
cotton worm, embraces the central portion of the cotton belt in 
_ the states of Georgia and Alabama, and in particular the counties 
of Marengo and Greene, lying along the Tombigbee and Black 
Warrior rivers. There cotton is planted in March and April, 
blooms in June and July, and perishes in November or with the 
frost. The earliest period at which I have noticed the young 
worm was the last week in June, and its usual appearance was in 
July, sometimes as late as the latter part of the month. Its date 
of appearance was irregular, and never accurately coincided in any 
two seasons. Sometimes it seemed as though we were “not going 
to have any worm at all this year,” a remark suggested by hope and 
the tardiness of its advent. My observations have been mainly 
directed to the question of the origination of the first brood and 
have led me to record the following results. I have observed that 
the appearance of the worm in the fields was always heralded by 
flights of the moth, which came to light in houses at least a week 
before the worm was noticed on the plants. I have observed that 
the distribution of the first brood was irregular; the worms occur- 
ring here and there over miles of country, while infesting some 
plantations, skipping unaccountably others which the second 
brood, however, seldom failed to reach. I have noted that the worm 
was always heard of to the southward at first, and never to the | 
northward, of any given locality in the cotton belt. Finally, ; 
after diligent search, no traces of the insect in any stage could 
be found by me during the months preceding the appearance of 
the first brood heralded by the moth, and after the cotton was 
above the ground. The broods themselves were consecutive and 
without interruption so long as the conditions were favorable. J 
The last brood, in years where the worm was numerous, eat op a 
every portion of the plant that was at all soft, flowers, the ae : 
tent calyx, the very young boll, the terminal shoots. The | 

rood of worms changed into chrysalides in myriads on the leafless 
stems, clinging by their few threads as best they might, and Le 
‘losed the moth in the face of the frost, many of the chrysalid®” 
perishing. Afterwards, on sunny winter days, I have noticed 
live moth about gin houses and fodder stacks, or the negro aie : 
Was this a true ‘‘hibernation” or merely an accidental surviv 
‘The locality and the condition seem to me alike artificial. ie 


Now Hübner describes the ‘moth of the cotton worm at 


THE COTTON WORM. 125 


from Bahia. Sufficient testimony to the identity of our insect 
with one destructive to the West Indian, Mexican and Brazilian 
perennial cotton, is at hand and the fact is established. In a 
classificatory point of view, the affinities of the cotton worm are 
With southern rather than northern forms of its family, as I have 
already pointed out. The conclusion to which I have come with 
regard to the cotton worm is, that it dies out every year (with its 
food plant) that it occurs in the cotton belt of the Southern States, 
and that its next appearance is the result of immigration. Testi- 
mony is at hand to show that for many years after the cultivation 
of the cotton plant was introduced into the Southern States, the 
cotton worm never appeared, The date at which it first appeared 
in Central Alabama has been differently stated to me, but it evi- 
dently but little preceded the late war. That the moth is capable 
of sustaining long and extended flight is readily proven. Pro- 
fessor Packard observed the moth off the coast of the Eastern 
States, as also Mr. Burgess. I have observed the moth in October 
in Buffalo, N. Y., as also Dr. Harvey. According to Mr. Riley 
the moth has been observed in Chicago, I presume in the Fall. 
It seems that the moth follows the coast-line northward as also 
the water courses that empty into the Gulf of Mexico. It is note- 
worthy here that the water-shed of the Ohio and Mississippi, ex- 
tends to within fifty miles of Buffalo. As an example of the 
prolonged flight of moths, I will state, that I have observed in the 
Gulf Stream, off the Carolinas and out of sight of land, in the 
month of August, large numbers of a moth, the Agrotis annexa 
of Treitschke. 

Again I have been struck by the absence of parasitie checks to 
the cotton worm in the south. I could never discover any, al- 
though such may exist. Spreading as I believe it to do, as a moth, 
the absence of peculiar parasites to the worm may be reason- 
ably accounted for. I have already and elsewhere pointed out, 
that in order to make the first brood of the cotton worm the prog- 
eny of the so-called “ hibernating” individuals (as Professor Riley 
would suppose), a period of several months has to be accounted 
for, since these “hibernating” moths could not wait till mid- 
summer to deposit their eggs; and while the cotton is young, 
and even before it is up, insect life is active, and the weather is 
warm and other vegetation fully out in the region of the South 
where I have lived. ‘here is also no reason to believe that the 


726 THE COTTON WORM. 


cotton worm ever breeds in the North, and this, notwithstanding 
Professor Riley’s suggestions to the contrary, in the Sixth Report 
before mentioned. The worm never has been noticed on any 
other plant than the cotton, and in the south perishes by thou- 
sands rather than eat any other. The habit of wandering in 
masses when food fails is a proof of this, as while the worm is 
supplied with cotton leaf it never quits the plant, transforming to 
the chrysalis on the stalk which has furnished it nutriment. The 
wandering habit is not normal but accidental, and the worm is 
not * gregarious” like the “tent caterpillar.” Its “ hibernation” 
with us must also be regarded as accidental, or at least as barren 
of results. For when spring comes the Aletia argillacea has van- 
ished, and is not found with the hibernating species of Lepidoptera, 
renewedly active. And if it were found in February and March, 
it would find no cotton plants upon which to deposit its eggs- If 
oviposition ever takes place in these months in the cotton belt, the 
young cotton, free from worms, disproves its efficacy. 

It is possible that in the southern portions of Texas, Or the 
Floridian peninsula, the Aletia may sustain itself during the 
entire year; I have no means of information on this point. 
My observations are made on its occurrence over the central and 
. principal portions of the cottom belt and into which I believe it to 
be imported de novo every season that it there occurs and from 
more southern regions. a 

I conclude, therefore, that while the cotton plant is not. indige- 
nous to the Southern States (where it becomes an annual), the coe 
ton worm moth may be considered not a denizen, but a visitant, . 
brought by various causes to breed in a strange region, and that 4 
it naturally dies out with us in the cotton belt, unable to suit — 
itself as yet to the altered economy of its food plant and to co 
tend with the changes of our seasons. i : 

When this fact is comprehended, it will simplify the process r 
artificial extermination by limiting the period during which we oo 
successfully attack the cotton worm, and by doing away with 2 — 
certain class of proposed remedies. ata 

From the foregoing it willbe evident that 1. The artificial agen” 
employed to destroy the cotton worm must be employed ag m 
the first brood as it appears in any given locality during the m 
gression of the moth northward ; and 2. That, in order to be 


THE COTTON WORM. 727 


ual, a concerted action in the application of the remedial agent in 
any given locality will be found necessary. 

I also recommend the introduction of the English sparrow into 
the Southern States, and additional legal protection to insectiv- 
orous birds. Since the war there has been too much ignorant 
use of the gun on the part of the negroes. All the birds should 
be protected as much as possible, for many species not usually 
considered insectivorous are yet found, during certain seasons of 
the year, to live on insects. 

I offer the following as the synonymy of the cotton worm in 
scientific literature : ; 

Aletia argillacea Hübner, Zutr. 3d Hund., S. 32, figs. 399-400 


Noctua xylina Say,* Sec. Ed. Vol. 1, p. 870 (1859). 

Anomis grandipuncta Guenée, Noct., Vol. 2, p. 400 (1852). 

Anomis bipunctina Guenée, Noct., Vol. 2, p. 401; id. Vol. 3, D: 
397 (1852). 

Anomis xylina Grote, Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil., Vol. 3, p. 541 (1864). 

Anomis xylina Riley, 2nd Mo. Rep. p. 40, fig. 13 (1870). 

Anomis xylina Grote, Rural Carolinian, 3, p. 88 (1871). 

Anomis xylina Riley, 6th Mo. Rep. p. 17 (1874). 

Aletia argillacea Grote, List of the Noctuidæ of N. America, p. 24. 


* In a letter to C. W. Capers, dated Nov. 1st, 1827. I do not know whether this letter 
is elsewhere published, but this question will not affect the synonymy here proposed 


LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 


BY A. S. PACKARD, JR. 

_ Tue design of the present series of papers is to give the results 
of studies by different authors on the development of the typical 
forms of animals, beginning with the lowest and ending with man. 


I. THE MONERA. 

Structure and Habits. Hæckel, in 1868, applied to this group 
of organisms, which are doubtfully referred to the animal kingdom, 
the term Monera (from povjpns, simple) in allusion to the extreme 
simplicity of their structure. ‘Their whole body,” he remarks, 
‘in a fully developed and freely moving condition, consists of an 
entirely homogeneous and structureless substance, a living parti- 
cle of albumen, capable of nourishment and reproduction.” They 
differ from the Amcebx, hitherto supposed to be as simple as any 
organism, in the want of a nucleus and of contractile vesicles. 
Moreover, they (as in Protameeba) differ from the Rhiz d 
Ameba in being entirely homogeneous in structure, there being, 
as Heckel observes, “no apparent difference between a morè 
tenacious outer and a softer inner sarcode mass,” as is “ percep- 
tible in most, perhaps in all, true Amæbæ.” 

The motions of these Moners are effected by contraction of the 
homogeneous substance of the body, and by the irregular protru- - 
sion of portions of the body, forming either simple processes 
(pseudopodia) or a net-work of gelatinous threads. The food is 
ZAR in after the manner of the Ameeba, the diatom, desmid oF 

me protozoan being surrounded by the pseudopodia an igi 
aiden by the extremely extensible body mass. Haeckel says = 
reproduction is effected solely in a non-sexual manner. per : 
but not always, the freely moving condition alternates with ak . 
of rest, during which the body surrounds itself with an °X . 
structureless covering,” becoming in fact encysted. 

he Monera are divided into two groups: 

1. G@ymnomonera, comprising the genera Bathybius, 
bius, Protameba, Protogenes and Myzxodictywm, which d 
come encysted and consequently protected by a case. 

(728) 


LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 429 > 


2. Lepomonera, which become encysted and protected by a case, 
as in the genera Protomonas, Protomyxa, Vampyrella and Myxas- 
trum. 

The simplest form of all is Protameeba, which is a simple mass 
of protoplasm without vacuoles (little cavities), which protrudes 
simple processes (pseudopodia) not ramifying or forming a net- 
work. Protogenes differs in protruding ramifying and anastomo- 
sing gelatinous threads, while Myxodictyum, the most complicated 
form, is made up of several simple Actinophrys-like bodies, whose 
pseudopodia branch out and interlace, forming a net. 

The simplest form of life known to us is Bathybius, a mass of 
albuminous jelly. If the theory of spontaneous generation should 
ever prove true we could imagine that the first living form would 
be like this organism, a mass of jelly, utterly structureless, and 
yet capable of motion (irritability), of taking food and digesting 
it, and of reproducing its species, and thus having an individu- 
ality. 

Bathybius is conséquently the most interesting organism (should 
it be proved to be such,) known except man. It cannot be said to 
be distinctively either animal or plant, though it has been studied 
chiefly by zoologists, and intergrades with the higher Moners, 
which seem to pass by the sum of their characters into the 
bæ and higher Rhizopods rather than into the Protophytes. But _ 
in the Moners we find a group of uncertain forms from which the 
plant and animal kingdoms diverge, and from which, consequently, 
they may have taken their origin. The Moners stand in the same 
relation to the whole world of organized beings that the egg does 
to the animal kingdom. All animals exist first in the form of nu- 
cleated cells, while the primitive form of plants and animals col- 
lectively, is a simple non-nucleated mass of protoplasm like Bathy- 
bius, and for these forms, neither distinctively plant nor animal, 

Heeckel’s term Protista is a convenient one for provisional use. 

Pathybina was first discovered by Prof. Wyville Thompson in 
1869 in dredging at a depth of 2435 fathoms at the mouth of the 
Bay of Biscay. He describes it as a “soft, gelatinous, organic 
matter, enough to give a slight viscosity to the mud of the surface 
layer.” Thompson also adds that if a “little of the mud in which 
this viscid condition is most marked be placed in a drop of sea 
water under the microscope, we can usually see, after a time, an 
irregular net-work of matter resembling white of eggs, distin- 


730 LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 


guishable by its maintaining its outline and not mixing with the 

water. This net-work may gradually alter in form, and entang 

granules and foreign bodies change their relative positions.” To 
Fig. 126. 


— 


ed 


Bathybius. 
this low Moner Huxley has given the name of Bathybius Heel 
(Fig. 126, with coccoliths embedded in the protoplasm, aes 
Thompson’s ‘Depths of the Sea”). This Moner, adds ThomP 
son, “ whether it be continuous in one vast sheet, or broken-™P 


kelit 


Snp OS 


LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 731 


into circumscribed individual particles, appears to extend ever a 
large part of the bed of the ocean.” It should be stated that 
Thompson and others do not believe that Bathybius is really an 
organic being. Bathybius has been discovered at a depth of from 
fifty fathoms downward in the Adriatic Sea, by Oscar Schmidt. 
The Bathybius mud was detected by its yellowish-gray color and 
its characteristic greasy nature. 

nder the name of Protobathybius Dr. Bessels mentions a 
Moner allied to Bathybius, which is a non-nucleated mass of pro- 
toplasm. It was discovered at a depth of ninety fathoms, mud, in 
Polaris Bay, Northern Greenland. 

The Protogenes primordialis of Heckel is a simple, shapeless 
mass of protoplasm, without vacuoles, but with over 1000 very 
fine pseudopodia, with numerous ramifications and anastomoses. 
The largest specimens are ‘04 inch in diameter. It is a marine 
form, found at Nice. It reproduces by fission. 

Myxodictyum is made up of several individuals, each one of 
which is like Protogenes, but with fewer pseudopods. M. sociale 
Heckel, in the single specimen observed, formed a mass nearly an 
inch and a half in diameter, and was discovered in the Straits of 


Gibraltar. 


Protomonas amyli (Ckski.) is a fresh-water, monad-like form, 
found by Cienkowski in Germany and Russia, and is from -08 to 
-20 inch in diameter. Protomyza aurantiaca Heckel has vacuoles 
in its simple, shapeless, orange-red body, and in the encysted 
condition is a globular jelly-like mass over half an inch in diam- 
eter. It occurred on empty’ shells of Spirula Peronii, floating 
about on the open sea, and driven in on the coast of one of the 
Canary Islands. Vampyrella, as its name implies, is a jelly-like 
mass, which according to Cienkowski bores into the cells of con- 
fervæ and other fresh-water algæ, and sucks out their contents. 
Another species, V. vorax, engulfs diatoms, desmids and infusoria, 
drawing them into the interior of its body. 

The highest form among the Moners is Myzastrum radians of 
Heckel, which forms a radiating ball of jelly of tough consistence 
from -12 to -20 inch in diameter. It has very tough, stiff pseudo- 
pods. In the encysted condition it is nearly half an inch in di- 
ameter, and occurred on the beach of one of the Canary Islands. 

Development. In Protameba and Protogenes, Heckel tells us 
we find the simplest possible mode of reproduction. They mul- 


132 LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 


tiplyeby merely dividing into two portions, each part becoming 
an individual. 

The distinguished Russian microscopist Cienkowski has given 
an account of the mode of development of Protomonas amyjli, 
which corresponds to that of the lowest algze, such as Protococcus 
(see Clark’s Mind in Nature, p. 136, Figs. 73-79) ; both repro- 
duce by spores; those of the animal Protomonas may be called 
“zoospores.” Fig. 127 (copied from Cienkowski) represents at 
A this moner during the formation of the zoospores; B, a 200- 
spore hatched out; C, D (A—D xX 350 diameters), the Ameeba- 
like form it afterwards assumes. From these stages Cienkowski 
traced it to the encysted, or resting stage, E; (y, food; 8, a pro- 
jection inwards of the cell-wall; 2, moner-cyst X 450). This 
form lives in putrefying Nitelle. It should be observed that the 


Development of Protomonas. 
cyst of this Protomonas, as in the true Monads studied by Fa 
kowski, is composed of cellulose, while the granular contents be- 
come colored with chlorophyll. In these respects they are plants, 


but it should be remembered that cellulose is said to occur 10 the 


mantle of the Tunicates and various parts of Articulates and Ver- 
tebrates, while chlorophyll occurs in the Infusoria and Hydra. 

The course of development of Protomyxa has been observed Py 
Heckel. The orange-red contents of the ball or cyst (Fig- 128, 
A) of this moner, divided, after it had retracted itself from the 
hyaline capsular wall, into several hundred small, round, thor- 
oughly structureless, naked balls (Fig. 128, B). This pro 
Heckel regards rather as a “germ formation,” than a process © 
division or gemmation. These small globular masses of proto- 
plasm (a) are each drawn out‘into a Jong tail (b), and issue from 


ao 
vo 


LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 7 
the cyst as ‘‘swarm-spores” (zoospores, Fig. 128, Ca, by :¢). 
These zoospores then assume an ameeba-form. These unite by 
twos or threes, or more, and form a new individual as at D, where 
two ameeba-like germs unite themselves by their anastomosing 
pseudopods and draw themselves over a Diatom (a), m€ et in the 
middle, and unite into one individual moner. Fig. 128, E, repre- 
sents a fully grown P. aurantiaca after having had a liber: al diet 
of shelled Infusoria (E, a). From the centr: al sarcode body the 
very strong, branching, tree-like pseudopods radiate, their outer 
Fig. 128 


Development of Protomyxa. 


sent-shaped meshes. The vac- 


anastomoses forming numerous cresce 
uoles extend into the larger pseudopods ; 
Ameba stage after they begin to take food. 

This adult, Amceba-like form becomes ency sted in the m 
thus described by Heckel. ‘‘To complete the natural history of 
the Protomyxa, it still remained only to observe the encysting of 
the adult form, the transition from the free’ moving plasmodia 
to the stationary red balls which had attached themselves to the 
Spirula shells near the latter. I succeeded in establishing this 
also. Two of the largest of the best fed plasmodia, which con- 


they first appear in the 


anner 


734 LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 


tained very numerous vacuoli, and which had formed a very ex- 
tended sarcode net, with many branches and anastomoses, after 
some time began to slacken their extremely rapid currents, and to 
simplify their pseudopods. The silicious shells of the many dia- 
toms which had been absorbed were rejected, and the branches 
and twigs of the pseudopods were successively retracted, At last 
they drew back the main stems, which had everywhere become 
simple, into the central plasma-body, and the entirely homoge- 
neous sarcode body took the form of an irregular lump, and 
finally rounded itself into a regular ball. l 

‘“ Now commenced the separation of the covering of the cyst, 
in which the sharply defined single outline of the orange-red 
plasma-balls passed into a perceptible, though certainly fine, 
double outline. A second, and then a third, concentric boundary 
line soon’ followed this, and then the proper concentric hyaline 
cyst-covering appeared somewhat quickly (in the course of a day) ; 
its layers corresponded with the above stated breaks of the sepa- 
rated gelatinous skin. At first a quantity of vacnoli were still 

perceptible in the plasma during the encysting process, which as 

peared and disappeared here and there, but visibly decreased in 
numbers ; and after the complete development of the cyst covering, 
no vacuoli could be any longer perceived in the orange-red plasma, 
now interspersed with numerous granules. ‘The encysted plasma- 
ball was now no longer to be distinguished from those red balls 
whose transition to the mass of sporules I have above described. 
Thus was the cycle of the generation of the Protomyxa completed, 
and the course of its simple and remarkable life history estab- 
lished.” sae 
- The phases may be thus summed up :— 

1. The free swimming flagellate state (sporule or zoospore). 

2. The creeping Amæba state. ' 

3. The reticulated Rhizopod state. 

4. The encysted state. 

‘Somewhat similar is the development of Vampyrella spirogyr®s 
which penetrates into the cells of the fresh-water plant Spirogyt™ 


and absorbs its protoplasm. Fig. 129, A, represents the adult, 


with its radiating pseudopods, and a large one in the act of boring 
into the walls of the plant. It then withdraws its pseudopodi: 
and assumes what Cienkowski calls the cell-state. During ps 
period it is surrounded by a delicate membrane. The granuli 


LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 735 


contents divide into three portions, each of which becomes an 

Ameba-like being (Fig. 129, B, showing one creeping out of the 
‘ A . ~s > 

cell, œ. C, D, E, the Ameceba-like stage). Finally one of these 


Fig. 129. 


Development of Vampyrella. 


Ameeba-like forms becomes encysted (Fig. 129, F, y, the food- 
granules; t, cell-wall of the cyst). To sum up the life-history of 
Vampyrella as observed by Cienkowski, we have : — 
1. An Ameeba-stage. 
2. A cell-stage. 
A second Ameeba-stage. 
. An encysted stage. 

So exactly does this mode of development parallel that of Col- 
podella pugnax described by Cienkowski, who regards it as a fla- 
gellate infusorian allied to Monas, that we doubt the naturalness 
of Heckel’s division of Monera. Colpodella and in fact Proto- 
monas differ from the Monads (Flagellata) simply in having no 
nucleus. Whether this may not be found on further observation, 
ant as Heckel 


He os 
. 


or whether its absence or presence is SO import 
thinks, future observation will show. We are now inclined to re- 
gard the Monera as a somewhat artificial group. It should be 
noticed that none of the other Moners have a ‘¢ cell-state,” but the 
Ameceba-like organism becomes encysted at once after becoming 
fully fed. 


The development of Myzxastrum radians of Heckel is much like 


736 LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. š 


that of Protomyxa, but differs in some important respects. The 
cyst becomes filled with numerous conical portions, whose points 
Fig. 130. rest towards the centre of the ball, while 
their rounded bases produce a mulberry- 
shaped outline externally... In the next 
stage these cone-shaped divisions have as- 
sumed a spindle shape, and each separate 
spore has developed a silicious covering 
(Fig. 130, A, a). When the spindle-shaped 
spore has been set free the protoplasmic con- 
tents (b) slip out of the silicious shell (Fig. 
130, B, a), and assume an Amæba form, with 
numerous radial pseudopods (Fig. 130, C), 
which in the fully formed Moner become as 
long as the diameter of the body. 

With the facts that have been presented, 
the question arises whether these moners are animals or vegetables. 
Structurally, and in their mode of development, the Monera would 
seem not to differ essentially from the lowest plants, such as the 
Myxomycetes and lowest Alge ; but physiologically, or in what 
they do, they differ, as H. J. Clark (Mind in Nature, p. 151, 156) 
says of Amoeba, in taking in living organisms entire, digesting 
their protoplasm and rejecting the silicious coverings of the dia- 
toms or infusoria they ‘have swallowed. The plants of corres- 
pondingly low organization on the contrary absorb only the ele- 
ments in an unorganized state. 


Development of Myx- 
astrum. 


LITERATURE, a 
eckel. Ueber den Sarcodekérper der Rhizopoden. (Siebold und Kölliker’s Zeits- 
chrift fiir naturwissenchaftliche Zoologie, xy. 1865. j 
——-—— Monographie der Moneren. (Jenaische Zeitschrift fiir Medicin w 
wissenschaft, iv. 1868, Translated in Quart. Journ. X icroscopical Science, 1569. 
Cienkowski a 
kopische Anatomie. Bd. 1. 1865. j 
uxley. On some Organisms living at great Depths in the North Atlantic Ocean (Ba 
thybius. (Quart. Journ. Mier. Sc.. viii. 1868.) 


II, THE GREGARINIDA. 

Structure and Habits. First discovered by Dufour, these para 
sitic protozoans, with an organ, 7. e., a nucleus, were considered as 
the lowest animals until the discovery by Heckel of the still sım- 
pler Monera. It is now known that they pass through the Moner- 
state and attain a true Amoeba condition, having an outer, clear, 


LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 737 
muscular, and an inner, medullary or granular, layer, which are 
more distinct than in the Amæbæ, and also a nucleus. In form 
they are more or less worm-like. They are parasitic, living in 
many types of animals, especially the insects and worms, and’vary 
greatly in form. The largest species known is Gregarina gigantea 
(Fig. 131 after Van Beneden), which lives in the intestinal canal 
of the European lobster. It is worm-like, remarkably pearing be- 
ing -64 inch in length. It is, in fact, the largest one-celled animal 
known, and in size may be compared with the cells of some vege- 
tables; in the animal kingdom it is only surpassed by the eggs of 
birds, which are really cells. In this or ganism an external, struc- 
tureless, perfectly transparent membrane, with a double contour, 
can be very clearly distinguished. It represents the cell wall of 
other cells. Beneath this outer wall is a continuous layer of con- 
tractile substance, by which these animals retain their form, not 
changing as in the Ameba. It was first discovered in 1852, by 
Prof. J. Leidy. He showed that there existed under the cuticular, 
structureless membrane, a so-called muscular layer, which in con- 
tracting becomes longitudinally folded, so as to produce a marked 
striation. Van Beneden adds that in “the immense Gregarina of 
the lobster I have assured myself of the presence of, under the 
cuticle, a true system of muscular fibrillæ, comparable to those of 

the Infusoria.” From this fact he places these animals above the 

Amæbæ, which move by the simple contractility of their sarcode 

or protoplasm, a property of all animal and vegetable protoplasm 

generally. He therefore opposes the opinion of Heckel that the 

Gregarina is an Ameba, degraded by its parasitic life. 

The internal granular matter of the Gregarina is extremely 
mobile, like protoplasm generally. “The whole cavity of the 
body is filled,” says Van Beneden, “with a granular matter formed 
by a viscid liquid, which is perfectly transparent. This holds in 
Suspension fine granulations of a rounded form, which are formed 
by a highly refractive and slightly yellow matter.” In this gran- 
ular matter the nucleus is suspended. The nucleus is surrounded 
bya membrane, and the cavity of the vesicle is filled by a homo- 
_ 8eneous, colorless and transparent liquid. This nucleus contains 

an inner vesicle, or nucleolus, which has the singular feature of 

Ee hony appearing and disappearing in a very short space 

time. “If one of these Gregarine of moderate size is ob-— 

“ay the nucleus is seen at first provided with a single nucle- 

_ AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. T 


738 LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 


olus, presenting some seconds later a great number of little 
refracting corpuscles, of very variable dimensions, which are also 
nucleoli. Some of these enlarge considerably, whilst the primi- 
tive nucleolus diminishes in volume little by little, finally disap- 
pearing. The number of nucleoli varies at every instant.” These 
novel observations are considered of great importance by Van 
Beneden as showing that the nucleolus of the Gregarina, and con- 
sequently the nucleoli of cells generally are sometimes, if not 
always, devoid of a membrane. And he draws the. inference 
“that the nucleus of a cell is not necessarily a vesicle, and that 


Development of Gregarina. 


contrary to the generally received opinion, a nucleus of a cell may 
be equally devoid of membrane,” though we may add tl oe 
it in the Gregarina of the lobster. Van Beneden distinguishes 
three kinds of motions in the Gregarine. 1. They present a Lies 
slow movement of translation, in a straight line and without bed 
possibility of distinguishing any contraction of the walls ol ae 
body which could be considered as the cause of the movement. 
It seems impossible to account for this kind of motion. 2 
next kind of movement consists in the lateral displacemen? yi 
every part, taking place suddenly and often very violently, from * 


yat he saw 


LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 739 
more or less considerable part of its body. Then the posterior 
part of the body may be often seen to throw itself out laterally by 
a brusque and instantaneous movement, forming an angle with the 
anterior part. 3. Owing to the contractions of the body the gran- 
ules within the body move about. 

Development. The history of Gregarina has been worked out 
by Siebold, Stein, Lieberkuhn, and more recently by E. Van Bene- 
den. The course of development is as follows: the worm-like 
adult, G. gigantea (Fig. 131, K, n nucleus, L, two individuals nat- 
ural size), which is common in lobsters on the European coast in 
May, June and August, becomes encysted,in September in the 
walls of the rectum of the lobster, the cysts (Fig. 131, A) appear- 
ing like “Tittle white grains of the size of the head of a small 
pin.” When thus encysted the animal loses its nucleus, and the 
granular contents of the cyst divide into two masses (B), like the 
beginning of the segmentation of the yolk of the higher animals. 
The next step is not figured by Van Beneden, and we therefore 
introduce some figures from Lieberkubn which show how the gran- 
ular mass breaks up into zoospores (called by authors “ pseudo- 
havicelle,” and by Lieberkuhn ‘‘ psorosperms ”) with hard shells. 
After the disappearance of the nucleus and vesicle, and when the 
encysted portion has become a homogeneous granular mass, this 
~ mass divides into a number of rounded balls (Fig. 131, C). 

- These balls consist of fine granules, which are the zoospores in 
their first stage (Fig. 131, N). They then become spindle-shaped 
_ (O), and fill the cyst (Fig. 131, M), the balls having meanwhile 
_ disappeared. From these zoospores are expelled Ameba-like 

masses of albumen (D, E) which, as Van Beneden remarks, ex- 
actly resemble the Protameba already described. This moner- 
like being, without a nucleus, is the young Gregarina. : 
` But soon the Amoeba characters arise. The moner-like young 
(Fig. 131, D, E) now undergoes a further change. Its outer por- 
n becomes a thick layer of a brilliant, perfectly homogeneous 
_ protoplasm, entirely free from granules, which surrounds the cen- 
_ al granular contents of the eytode (Heckel) or non-nucleated 
= cell. This is the Amæba stage of the young Gregarina, the body, 
4s in the Ameba, consisting of a clear cortical and granular me- 
:  dullary or central portion. 
~ The next step is the appearance of two arm-like projections 
(Fig. 131, F); See to the pseudopods of an Amoeba. One 


t 


BRE Saale. 
EN 


740 LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 


of these arms elongates, and separating forms a perfect Gregarina. | 
Soon afterwards the other arm elongates, absorbs the moner-like 
mass and also becomes a perfect Gregarina. This elongated stage 
is called a Pseudofilaria (Fig. 131, G). No nucleus has yet ap- 
peared. In the next stage (Fig. 131, H, n, nucleus) the body is 
shorter and broader, and the nucleus appears, while a number of 6 | 
granules collect at one end, indicating a head. After this the 
body shortens a little more (I, J), and then attains the elongated, 
worm-like form of the adult Gregarina (K). Van Beneden thus 
sums up the phases of growth :— eS 
1. The Moner phase. : 
2. The generating Cytode phase. 
3. The Pseudo-filaria phase. 
4. The Protoplast * (adult Gregarina). Mae 
5. The encysted Gregarina. Se 
6. The sporogony phase (producing zoospores). A 

It seems evident that the mode of development of the Gregarina l 
in part corresponds quite closely with the mode of growth of the : 
Moners ; for example, it becomes encysted, îi. e., sexually mature, 
produces zoospores (pscudonavicella), and from these zoospores 
issues the y oung or larval form of the Gregarina. These zoospores 
abound in damp places and are devoured by insects and worms: 
After they are swallowed the shells burst and the Ameaba-like 
young are set free in the body of their host. 

It will be seen that there is here a total absence of sexual repro 
duction. The Moner-stage arises by self-division of the content 
of the cyst, a process analogous to the segmentation of the yolk 
of eggs; and the Psendofilariz arise by self-division of the young 
in the Moner-stage, i. e., by a budding process. . 


LITERATURE. 

_ Dufour. Note sur la Grégarine. (Annales des Sciences Aaaa l xii. 
Siebold. Bei iträge zur Geschichte wirbelloser Thier 1813.) E 
Stein. Ueber die Natur der Gregarinen. (Mullers Archiv fiir A DE Zeite 
Ee Belirle atr Eonarois nioleres Thiere- (Siebold und Köll 


ouronnés de pPAcadđémie E — 


1828.) - 


849.) 
Paonia Evolution des Grégarines. (Mémoires c 


e Brux 
E. Van Beneden. On a i Naw sent of Gregarina to pe called Gregarina 9 
— (Quart. Journ. Microscopical Sc 187 pacad: 
——— Recherches sur i Pkectation des Grégarines. (Bulletins er 
emie Royale de Belgique, xxxi. 1871.) - 


sta. 
*The Gregarinæ and Ameb constitute Hæckels group of Protop: i 


LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 741 


III. THE RHIZOPODA. 


Structure and Habits. We have almost anticipated a definition 
of the Rhizopoda, of which the Ameeba, or Protean animalcule, is 
the simplest form, by our frequent references to the ‘* Amoeba- 
form” or “ Ameeba-like” stages in the Moners and Gregarinas. 
The Ameeba is the starting point, the unit of the nucleated Pro- 
tozoa, the primitive, ancestral form to which the members of the 
subkingdom may be reduced. Until the Monera were discovered 
the Ameeba was regarded as the lowest possible animal, 

With the form of the Monera, a shapeless mass of protoplasm, 
changing each instant, throwing out threads or larger protrusions 
of the body, the Ameeba possesses 
a distinct organ, the nucleus, and 
its body mass is divided into a 
clear cortical and a medullar 
granular mass; the outer highly 
contractile, the inner granular 
portion acting virtually as a stock 
of food. These granules, like the 
grains of chlorophyll in vegetable 
cells and Diatoms and Desmids, circulate in regular fixed cur- 
rents, according to J. H. Clark. (See Fig. 132, after Clark; the 
usual form of Ameba diffluens Ehrenberg, magnified 100 diam- 
eters ; the arrows indicate the course of the circulating food. The 
head end is knobbed, and within free from granules.) We have 
then in Ameeba :— 

1. A nucleus, probably representing the nucleus and ‘ovary of 
the Infusoria. 

2. A head and posterior end. 

3. A circulation analogous to that of the Infusoria. 

This animal, as we may justly call it, since it takes in living 
protozoans and rejects their shells, has the power of moving in 
a particular direction, one end of the body always advancing 
first; which indicates the rudiments of a nervous and muscular 
power; and can swallow, digest and circulate its food. Whether 
it gives out nitrogen and absorbs oxygen or not is unknown. It 
reproduces by self-division, and some allied forms by the produc- 
tion of monad-like, flagellate spores. 

The Ameeba is a fresh-water form, living on the stems and 


Fig. 132. 


4 


Ameeba. 


y Set 


742 LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 


leaves of fresh-water plants. The late H. J. Clark, our most emi- 
nent microscopist, thus describes its habits in his “ Mind in Na- 
ture.” “The three figures represent the various forms which I 
have seen the same individual assume, whilst I had it under the 
microscope, as it crept over the water-plants upon which it is 
accustomed to dwell. The most usual form which it assumed is 
that of an elongated oval (A), but from time to time the sides of 
its body would project either in the form of simple bulgings (B), 
or suddenly it would spread out from several parts of the body 
(C), as if it were falling apart; just as you must have seen a drop 
of water do on a dusty floor, or a drop of oil on the surface of 
water; and then again it retracted these transparent arms and 
became perfectly smooth and rounded, resembling a drop of slimy, 
mucous matter, such as is oftentimes seen about the stems of 
aquatic plants.” 
Pelomyxa (Fig. 134) is a fresh-water Ameba-like form, but,pro- 
vided with spicules. Under the name of Amoeba sabulosa Prof. 
Leidy deseribes* a form which he thinks “is probably a member 
of the genus Pelomyxa,” and which is characterized by the com- 
paratively enormous quantity of quartzose sand which it swallows 
with its food. “The animal might be viewed as a bag of sand! 
It is from one-eighth to three-eighths of a line in diameter, and 
was found on the muddy bottom of ponds in Pennsylvania an 
New Jersey. Itis possibly Pamphagus mutabilis, figured by ye 
fessor Bailey in the “ American Journal of Science and Arts, i 
1853. Another form resembling Greef’s Pelomyxa, and found 
by. Professor Leidy in a pond in New Jersey, is Deinamæba 
mirabilis ;+ its body bristles with minute spicules. He has alad 
described in the same Proceedings (p. 88) Gromia terricola, which 4 
lives in the earth about the roots of mosses growing in the crev 
ices of the bricks of the pavements of the streets of Philadelphia. 
He thus graphically describes this singular form. “Imagine an 
animal, like one of our autumnal spiders, stationed at the oen 
of its well spread net; imagine every thread of this net to be® 
living extension of the animal, elongating, branching, and becom 
ing confluent so as to form a most intricate net; and he 
every thread to exhibit actively moving currents of 4 viscid "a 
both outward and inward, carrying along particles of tondi - 


* Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1874. P- % 
IL e. p- 142. a 


_ LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 743 


dirt, and you have some idea of the general character of a 
Gromia.” 
A convenient division of the Rhizopods is into two groups, 


Foraminifera and Radiolaria. Schultze divides the former into :—- 


1. Nuda, or naked forms, such as Amoeba and Actinophrys. 

2. Monothalamia, forming a one-chambered shell, but with the 
animal undivided, living in the simple hollow of the shell. Fresh- 
water forms are Arcella, Difflugia and Gromia, while Cornuspira 
is a marine form. ; 

3. Polythalamia, with many-chambered shells; all marine. The 
three divisions are represented by (1) Acervulina, (2) Nodosaria 
and `(3) Miliola, Rotalina, Globigerina, Textularia, Nummulina, 
Polystomella, ete. 

The Rhizopods are divided by Heckel into 1. Acyttaria, or the 
one and many chambered Foraminifera; 2. The Heliozoa, repre- 
sented by Actinospherium (Actinophrys) Eichhornii, or sun-animal- 
cule; and 3. The Radiolaria. These last two groups he divides 
(a) into the Monocyitaria (represented by Cyrtidosphera, Thalassi- 
colla and Acanthometra, etc.) and (b) ihe a represented 
by Collozoum, Sphzerozoum and Collosphera. Heckel, who has 
studied these Radiolaria more than ia one else, though Johannes 
Miller gave us the first definite information about them, says that 
‘tin the lower forms they are allied to the sun-animalcules and 
Foraminifera, but the higher forms are much more highly devel- 
oped. They differ from both the Actinophrys and Foraminifera, 
in that the central part of the body is made up of many cells, 
and is surrounded by a strong membrane. This closed, more or 
less spherical *‘central capsule” is surrounded by a slimy layer 
of protoplasm, from which thousands of very fine threads radi- 
ate, and often branch out and anastomose: Among them are 
scattered numerous yellow cells, which contain starch granules.” 
(Whether these yellow cells are parasitic organisms, or belong to 


_ the animal, is not yet known.) Most Radiolaria are provided with 


lighly ee silicious frame-work, like the outer shell of a 
Chinese carved balls, the outer surface of which is studded 


- with spines; but both the form of the silicious box and the spines 


~ Varies greatly, as may be seen by a glance at the plate in volume 


III* (after J. Müller), illustrating the Polycystina. Some Radio- 


* Explanation of the plate. Fig. 1, Tetrapyle pees Fig. 2, Haliomma amphidis- — 


cus; Fi F e h ngispinum ; Fig. 4, Haliomma canthum ; Fig. 5, Haliomma? 


T44 LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA, 


laria have a many chambered shell like those of the Polytha- 
mia. 

While the Foraminifera live mostly at the bottom of the sea 
(some, however, occurring between tide marks) on stones and sea- 
weeds, creeping over sand and mud by means of their pseudopods, 
the marine Radiolaria for the most part float with outstretched 
pseudopods on the surface of the sea. They occur in countless 
numbers, but are usually so small that until 1858 they had been 
almost entirely overlooked by naturalists. The compound, or 80- 
cial forms, such as Collosphera, are nearly an inch in diameter, 
while most of the simple species cannot be seen with the naked 
eye. The Polycystina occur fossil in abundance at Barbadoes, 
Richmond, Va., and the Nicobar islands. 

Development. So far as is known Amoeba multiplies its kind only 
by the simplest mode of reproduction known, that of self-divis- 
ion. The following figure (133), copied from Heckel, represents 


Fig. 133. 


Amoeba sphrrococcus. 


highly magnified, Ameba spherococcus, a fresh-water species WE 
out a contractile vesicle, in the process of fission ; at is is a 
encysted Ameeba in its “resting stage.” It now consists er 
spherical lump of protoplasm (d), in which is a nucleus (e) a 
its nucleolus (b) and the whole surrounded by 3 cyst or a 
membrane (a). It breaks the cell-wall and becomes free a 


LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 745 


A. Self-division then begins as at C, the nucleus doubling itself, 
until at Da and Db, we have as a result two individuals, 

In Pelomyxa, a higher form than Amoeba, we have according to 
Greef a production of ciliated zoospores. This form, described 
Fig, 134. 


by Greef under the name of Pel- 
omyza palustris (Fig. 184, A, a, 
clear portion ; b diatoms enclosed 
in the body mass), lives in the 
mud at the bottom of pools, and 
When first seen resembles little 
dark balls of mud -04—-05. inch 
in diameter. The body mass 
contains numerous vacuoles filled 
With water, and numbers of nu- 
clei and spicules. These nuclei 
and spicules have a dancing mo- 
tion, like the ordinary Brownian Pelomyxa palustris. 

There are also numerous hyaline, oval 


movements of molecules. 
or rounded bodies which Greef calls ‘‘ shining bodies,” and which 
originate from the nuclei. They increase by division within the 
body-mass of the Pelomyxa, becoming Ameeba-like bodies (Fig. 
134, B, n nucleus, ¢ contractile vesicle) which issue in great num- 
bers from the parent-mass. These Ameeboid forms gradually pass 
into flagellate zoospores (Fig. 134, C) with a nucleus and con- 
tractile vesicle. It thus seems that the zoospores of this Rhizopod 
are produced without the animal becoming encysted. 

As regards the development of Actinophrys and the allied spiny 
forms, Greef thinks that besides being formed by direct self-division, 
there is a resting or encysted stage. ‘‘ The latter consists in the 
withdrawal of the sarcode body-mass from the inner boundary 
formed by the union of the bases of the radial spines, leaving a 
rather wide empty border, and its becoming invested by a double * 
coat, viz., a firm inner one, when empty, dotted, as if perforated, 
and an outer hyaline one.” 

According to Schneider, Actinophrys Eichhornii undergoes di- 
Vision ; the central mass divides twice or thrice. Then the alveo- 
lar cortical layer disappears, and each mass resulting from the 
self-division becomes encysted. This process is undergone in two 
days. It remains encysted through the winter until the beginning 


746 LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. y 


of May, when the cyst drops off and a small Actinophrys with a 
number of nuclei appears. 2 

As an example of the bianca of these forms by fission, : 
we may cite the case of Gromia socialis, figured by Archer. He 
represents the body of a Gromia after having undergone a trans- a 
verse self-fission, having in each portion a nucleus with its nucle- A 
olus, the upper segment giving off branched pseudopodia as usual. 

Of the mode of development of the shelled Amcebz or Forami- 
nifera (Polythalamia), numerous and often accessible as these 
animals are, we know but little. In fact, we have only the frag- i ! 


mentary observations of Max Schultze, made in 1856, on a species 
- of Miliola sent him from Trieste. He says that this Foraminifer, 
after remaining from eight to fourteen days in the same place on 
the side of the jar, became surrounded with a thin layer of brown- 
ish mud, so that the shell was lost to view. On the 15th of May 5 
_he noticed that small, round, sharply defined bodies escaped from 
the brownish slimy mass, and after some hours as many as forty 
such bodies surrounded the Miliola. These round bodies were 
young Foraminifera in calcareous shells with one turn, but no inner | 
walls, somewhat resembling Cornuspira, and with pseudopodia 
already like those of the adult. It is probable, therefore, that the , 
shell of the young is formed within the parent. Schultze adds 
that the almost complete want of organic contents in the shell of : ) 
the parent at this time, rendered it probable that the whole or 
greater part of its body bad passed into those of the young. . 
Of the mode of development of the Radiolaria, Prof. Cienkow- 
ski afforded, in 1871, the first definite information. He states that 
*‘J. Müller saw in the interior of an Acanthometra a swarming of 3 
small monadclike vesicles, which moved about for a time, & 
then changed themselves into Actinophrys-like structures. After- . 
wards,” Heckel saw, first, in Spheerozoids, “the contents of the 
capsules break up into many vesicles, and secondly, in Sphæro- 
zoum, he observed masses of vesicles which exhibited a vibratory 
movement.” Lastly, Schneider had noticed in Thalassicolla g groups 
of ameboid vesicles with movable flagellum-like processes. 
facts rendered it probable, what Cienkowski has anne that the 
Radiolaria reproduce by motile germs, i.e., zoospore 
He studied the compound forms, such as conan and Collo- 
zoum, which are composed of aggregations of capsules (Fig. . 135 Ay 


LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 747 


a capsule of a young Collospheera without the latticed shell), held 
together by a common mass of protoplasm. These capsules are 
separated by a certain interval from one another, while the proto- 
plasm binding them together consists of alveoli (vesicles) of 
various sizes, between and on to which sarcodic threads and net- 
works are disposed. “I always found,” he adds, “the capsules 
supported on the surface of the alveoli, often lenticular, com- 
pressed, and enclosed by a radiating layer of protoplasm, which 
also spreads itself over the alveoli, and passed over continuously 
into the sarcodic envelope of neighboring capsules. Besides those 
alveoli which carry capsules, there are Fig. 135. 

many smaller, which are free from cap- 
sules,.” 

Collosphera spinosa (Fig. 135, B) pos- 
sesses a fenestrated shell beset with small 
spines, which encloses a capsule with a 
protoplasmic investment. Fig. 135, B, a, 
indicates the problematical yellow cells. 

ig. 135, A, indicates a young capsule of 
another spineless species, C. Hualeyi 
Mill. The young capsule of this species 
is naked, embedded, without any shell, in 
a radiated protoplasmic sheath, not emar- 
ginated by any sharply marked envel- 
ope. ‘In this stage they often divide 
themselves by fission into two halves. 
Not until maturer age does the capsule 
obtain a resisting membrane, and become 
enclosed in a fenestrated shell. 

The next change which takes place in 
the capsule is its division into a number 
of little spheroids. This process is accomplished in a single day 
in C. Huzleyi. These spheroids become monad-like bodies, filling 
the capsule with a mass of corpuscles having a tremulous move- 
ment, and which finally swarm out in all directions (Fig. 135, B) 
from the capsule as true zoospores (C). The capsules now die 
and break up. These zoospores are provided with two long cilia. 
In the interior are a few oil drops, and a little crystalline rod, 
which sometimes projects out of the body. 

“Among the swarms of swimming zoospores lay many motion- 


Collosphera. 


748 LIFE HISTORIES OF THE PROTOZOA. 


less ones dispersed,” continues Cienkowski. “They were round. 
or angular, with drawn-out points,” and one or more constrictions » 
could be seen in them (Fig. 135, D). “Apparently they were de- 
velopmental stages of the zoospores, obtained as they were in 
course of formation from the contents of the capsule.” Cienkowski 
observed the same process in Collozowm inerme, thus substanti- 
ating his observations on Collosphra, 
In the Rhizopods, then, we know certainly two modes of repro- 
‘ duction :— 
A. By self-division, as in Ameeba. 
B. By the production of zoospores, as in the Radiolaria. 
In ‘the latter the following phenomena take place :— 
~ 1. The capsule is filled with spheroids by a probable division of 
the contents of the capsule, as in the encysted stage of Moners 
and Gregarinida. 
vee ing” of zoospores. 


LITERATURE. 
Naked Rhizopods. 
PA Ueber die 1 stnetet der Ameeben. (Siebold and Killiker’s Zeitschrift, 


~ Kölliker. Das ee nee, ea ee _(Siebold and Kolliker’s Zeitschrift, 
3 1849. Translated in Qu J Micr. Science 53.) 
$ ha 


-> Archer. On some Paa nater Rhizopoda, new or little known. (Quart. Journ. Mier. 
L Sc., 1869-71.) 

3 ; B. Foraminifera 

a ‘Schultze. Ueber den den Organismus der Helps aincaion ieee Bemerkungen iiber die 
` Rhizopoden in Allgemeinen. 1 
_—___—_ Beobach sg ueber die Fortpflanzung der Polythalamien. (Müllers 
: Arehiv für Anatomie, ete. 


Carpenter. 
es Toton- 


h th Foraminifera. (Philosophical Transactions of the 


C. Radiolaria. $ 
Miller. Ueber ‘Me Miclanicuess, Polycystinen und Acanthometren des Mittel- 
meeres. (Abhandlungen der K. Akad. Berlin, 1958.) _ ; 
Heckel. Die Radiolarien. Eine Mondgrapbie, folio, 186: wes 
eber Schwirmerbildung bei Helori y somnav Archiv für i 
ted in Quart. Jou 


enntniss der Radiolarien. (Siebold raid ati zma 


hee ey 


Zea ket a T ae a a aes | Poe Be Po a a 


Se Se ge Se, ee gee ee er 


y 


‘and Science Cl 


REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 
INTRODUCTION TO GeneraL Brorocy.*—Though the plan of this 
little manual is good, being identical with the arrangement of the 
examination questions in the Science and Art Department of In- 
struction at South Kensington, we cannot speak favorably of its 
execution, or advise the use of the book in this country, unless 
carefully revised. A want of special knowledge of the subject, 
and the usually execrable woodcuts, wherever not copied from 
other works, detract seriously from the value of the book. 

Pusuications or WueEetrr’s Surver.t— Besides the maps is- 
sued by this survey we now have a Catalogue of Plants collected 
in the years 1871, 1872 and 1873, with descriptions of a few new 
species, by Mr. Sereno Watson and Dr. J. T. Rothrock, botanist, 
aided by Messrs. Hoopes, Olney, Vasey, Eaton, James and Austin. 

Thg report upon the birds collected in Utah and Nevada during 
the same years, by Dr. Yarrow, abounds in notes on habits and 
geographical distribution. 

Tie GEOLOGICAL Survey or Inp1ana. {—While this last year's 
report of the Survey is mainly on economic geology, as it should 
be, it contains some archeological and palzontological notes of 
interest. 

BOTANY. 

Yucca FILAMENTOSA. —Dr. Engelmann’s interesting observa- 
tions on the genus Yucea, and Prof. C. V. Riley’s discoveries in ae 
relation to the yucca moth, § have turned attention generally to x 
this family of plants. The Yucca filamentosa is the species most 
commonly cultivated in the central United States. It is found 


* An Introdnetion to the Study of General Biology, designed for the use of School 
asses. By Thomas U. MacGinley. With 124 illustrations. Putnam’s 
pp. 199. Price 


Elementary Science Series. New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 12mo. 5 
cts. 


¢Report upon Ornithological Specimens collected in the years 1871, 1872 and 1873. 
By Dr. H.C. Yarrow. Washington, D- C. sro. 1874. pp. M8. Catalogue of lants 
collected in the years 1871, 1872 and 1873, with descriptions of New Species. Wheeler’s 
Geographical and Geological Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian. 

v4. 8 


DC. pp- 
ifth Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Indiana, made during the year 
i is b John Collett, Prof. W. W. Bor- 
. Indianapolis, 1874. Svo. pp. 494 With plates and maps. 
NATURALIST, vol. 7. 
(749) 


den and Dr. G. M. Levette 
§ Trans. St. Louis Acad. Science, 1873, an AMERICAN 


750 BOTANY. 


growing wild in Virginia and southward. The generic namé 
Yucca is supposed to be of Indian origin; its signification is not 
known. The specific name filamentosa is expressive of the thread- 
like filaments found on the edges of the leaves. The popular 
names of this plant are Spanish bayonet, Adam’s needle and bear 
grass. The name first mentioned was probably suggested by the 
form of the leaves. In the backwoods of West Tennessee this 
yucca is called “ bar grass,” ‘* bar” probably being the rural for 
bear; the tough leaves are used there for suspending meat in the 
smoke-house. The peculiar perfume of the flowers of this plant 
is not perceptible in the daytime. I have known floriculturists 
-who have had the plants in their gardens for years without dis- 
covering that they possessed fragrance. In this latitude, Jack- 
sonville, Ill., the perfume begins to exhale about 7 o’clock, P. M. 
It is sufficiently like that given off from a wasp when disturbed, 
to make nervous persons uneasy if unacquainted with its origin. 
It is worthy of note that the Yucca moth makes its appearagee on 
the plant soon after its perfume becomes perceptible. This sum- 
mer, having a blooming plant of the F. filamentosa in my garden, 
I determined to see what I could of its wonders for myself; my 
tools were a simple hand microscope and a number of little 
tarlatan bags with draw strings. With the latter, four experi- 
ments were tried. The first one was to test the ability of the 
- flower to pollenize itself. Four large buds on different branches 
and almost ready to open, were selected, a-bag was drawn over 
each of these and fastened by the draw string to the stem bey ond 
the flower. With the view of throwing as much strength as poe 
sible into the flowers operated on, all the other flowers on these 


branches were removed. The buds expanded in their gauzy Cov" 


ering as perfectly as their unveiled sisters, but like nuns of an- 
other order they drooped and died, leaving no progeny beh 

them. The second experiment was to pollenize the flower, by 
itself, artificially. The buds were gently opened and some pollen 
scraped from their anthers with a small penknife and placed in the 


entrance to the stigmatic tube. The buds were then enveloped n S 
bags and the branches stripped off the other flowers and buds as 18 


the former case. These also failed to develop seeds. The third 
experiment was. to pollenize artificially from another plant. 
operation was conducted like the above, and like the she 
failed to produce seeds. The fourth experiment was to pollenize — 


The a 


BOTANY. 751 


artificially from other flowers on the same plant. One large per- 
fect capsule of seed resulted from this attempt. In this capsule 
the indentations around the middle, which forms so constant & 
feature in this species was not present. Was this variation from 
the usual form the result of unusually perfect fertilization, or from 
the protection from the puncture of insect afforded the seed-pod 
by the gauze? This peculiarity of the seed-pods of the filamen- 
tosa calls for further investigation. If it be a development of the 
natural growth of the plant and not caused by external agencies, 
: it is interesting to note how it may be made to vary as in the 
above case. If it be caused by deficient fertilization or from the 
puncture of insects, why are the indentations so uniformly in the 
middle of the capsule? 

In the three experiments where pollen was used, the pollen was 
placed as nearly as possible in the same position in each flower, 
viz., just at the entrance to the stigmatic tube; the result con- 
firms the view taken by Dr. Engelmann in relation to the diffi- 
culty of this flower being pollenized by other natural agencies. 
than that afforded by the yucca moth. She thrusts her mass of 
pollen far into the stigmatic opening, thus insuring fertilization. 
If, as is probable, the yucca plant preceded the yucca moth in exist- 
ence, the plant is so prolific in bloom and in seeds, that if but a very 
small proportion of the flowers were fertilized by the usual agen- 
cies, there would still be enough seeds produced to perpetuate the 
species abundantly ; for each capsule contains from one to three 
hundred seeds. After the seeds on my plant had turned black 
and before the yucca grubs had eaten out, forty-one capsules were 
carefully examined, of these twenty-four contained grubs, one held 
six of the little fellows. In no case was there more than one grub 
found in the same end of a row of, seeds, occasionally one was 
found at each end of a row and the grubs were found quite as of- 
ten at one end as at the other of the capsules. My plant was fre- 
quently disturbed. It would appear from the unusually large pro- 
portion of capsules without grubs, that the moth may be more 
- successful in fertilizing the flowers when disturbed, than in find- 
ing a safe harbor for her eggs. If the discoveries made in regard 
to the fertilization of this plant can be sustained on further inves- 
tigation, more than ordinary intelligence must be ascribed to the 
~ yucca moth, Ist, for her foresight in making ready the way for 
~ her progeny to be supported, and this, by indirect means; 2nd, in 


752 BOTANY. 


her wise disposition of her eggs so that the larvæ cannot interfere 

„ With each other’s supply of food. May not this little insect while 
fluttering around within the flower, seeking a place to deposit her 
eggs, accidentally become laden with pollen? Then, when her 
work is done and she ascends the stigma to regale herself with its 
sweets, she brings her pollen-laden antenns in contact with the 
stigmatic surface, thus unwittingly performing her part in this life 
drama.—J. M. MILLIGAN. 


a 
4 


a 
l 


Tue Distixcrive Features or ArpLe FLowerrs.— We make 
a brief abstract of an essay on this subject by Prof. W. J. Beal, 
of the Michigan Agricultural College. The essay is contained in 
vol. iii of the Report of the State Pomological Society. Each flower 
bud of the apple contains five to eight flowers. The centre flower 
opens first, and is often provided with poor anthers ; it is most likely 
to set for fruit so far as the author has observed. The immense 
number and often very great similarity of varieties of apples make 
it often difficult to recognize and define them by the fruit alone, 
as is mostly done. No pomologists that he could hear of have 
made any use of the flowers of apples as a means of classifying 
them. He says, “the petal of the red astrachan is one and & 
fourth inches long by three-fourths broad. It is ovate. The 3 
petal of a Tolman Sweet is twelve-sixteenths by seven-sixteenths 
of an inċh, and is elliptical. Its length is about the breadth of 
the red astrachan. The petal of the Porter is thirteen-sixteenths by 3 
twelve-sixteenths and is nearly orbicular. It is also cordate at the - 
base, different from the other two varieties. Large numbers of 
_ flowers were examined on several trees of each, except the Porter. 
The petal of the sweet bough is seventeen-sixteenths by fourteen- 
sixteenths of an inch. It is broadly ovate, with a stem or claw 
longer than tither of the other three varieties mentioned. Other 
varieties were examined with similar results. The styles pe! 
vary much in size and in other respects in different varieties. 
They are usually united about half-way, and mostly smooth for tha, 
greater part of their length. In the Tolman Sweet, the styles are 
united in one small column for half their length, then appear i 
larger. The upper half of the styles are closely covered and 
bound together by a dense woolly substance, unlike the styles “ : 
any other variety examined. The sepals also differ considerably 
in different varieties.’ The author is confident that much use 


yg oo ee ee 
Eee S EA 


ZOOLOGY. . 753 


can be made of the flowers in defining varieties of apples. This 
may seem a simple matter to botanists, but it must.be new to 
most pomologists, for some of the best of them say there is little 
difference in the flowers of apples. 


ZOOLOGY. 


. Nore on tae Synonymy or Terea Porypnemus.* —In a paper 

read before the Royal Dublin Society, March 18, 1872, Mr. W. 
_ F. Kirby prefers the name paphia L., for our common species of 

Telea, and says: “It has, I think, been questioned whether Cra- 

mer’s Attacus polyphemus, from Jamaica, is identical with this 

common species.” It is Dr. Packard who writes of Cramer’s fig- 
ures under the names ‘“Cecropia,” “ Polyphemus” and “ Prome- 
thea,” as received from the West Indies, that they “would lead 
one to suppose that they represented distinct species,” from those 
we know from the United States under these names (Proc. Ent. 

Soc. Phil., 1864, p. 381). 

Having received Telea Polyphemus from Matamoras, collected 
by my brother, Capt. F. Harris Grote, and it having been recorded 
from California by Mr. H. Edwards, we can assign a wide range 

_ to this species. Farther to the southward it may be replaced by 

the Mexican Telea Montezuma Grote, Trans. Am. Ent. Soc., 2, p. 
-~ 118. My studies of this Bombycid lead me to believe that the 
-~ typical Attaci are entirely unrepresented in the West India Islands. 
The positive demonstration of this as a fact would be highly inter- 
esting as throwing some light on the geological history of the 
Islands. I am, then, inclined to regard Cramer’s habitat for our 
Attaci as erroneous, and to account for the discrepancies of his 
figures, by an infidelity of execution. 

I do not find any description of a species of Attacus under the 
name Polyphemus by Linné. The first description seems to be. 
that of Cramer, and the species is afterwards described under the 
same name by Fabricius — Insectorum). This corrects the 
Sheageay proposed by Dr. Packard, who cites Linné as authority 

species, referring ne the “Syst. Nat. (1767).” 
-= Linné describes his B. paphia first in “Syst. N. X.” 1758, as 
from “Guinea,” p. 496, No. 4, and cites ‘ Petiv. Gazoph.” tab. 


SS a eS 


*I am indebted to Dr. Hermann A. Hagen of Cambridge, Mass., for bibliognostic 
information used in the present article. 
AMER. NATURALIST, ie VII. 48 


ig 


754 =- ZOOLOGY. 


- f. 3, which I cannot consult and, doubtfully, “ Catesby” Car. 
2, p. 91, tab. 91.. The species intended by Linné cannot, I think, 
be our Polyphemus. 

In Mus. Lud. Ulr. 1764, p. 369, No. 4, Linné describes in ex- 
tenso B. paphia from eases America, and cites Catesby, 
this time without doubt, as also Petiver and Rumphius. The de- 
scription hardly applies to our species, but this is the only one 
that admits of the probability. Finally in the twelfth edition of 
the “ Systema Nature,” 1767, p. 809, No. 4, Linné cites Catesby - 
again with doubt, and oe Guinea, Asia, as the habitat of his B. 
paphia. ; 

Of his B. paphia (Mus. Lud. Ulr.) Linné says: “ öl prie: a 
moris similes in medio; postice pallidiores versus marginem et 
obsolete undulate,” and “Ocelli utriusque alæ in mare oblonga, 
in femina orbiculati, quorum qui in aliis posticis cincti nigr. vio- 
lacea,” which in part does not agree with our species. 

I think, then, that the B. paphia of Linné’s tenth and twelfth 
editions of his ‘Systema Nature” is not our Polyphemus, while 
that of his Mus. Lud. Ulr. may be. This latter will not affect the 
specific name of our common species, which appears to be con- 
fined to continental North America and not to occur in the West 
Indies.—Auge. R. GROTE. 


N E E 


S 


Tue REVERSION OF THOROUGHBRED AnNIMAaLsS.*—The improve- 
ment in live stock has been greater than in tillage. Ithasbeen 
accomplished by (1) selection of breeding animals, and (2) by 
care of them. Both of these are essential. Starved animals 
not thrive, no matter how well bred, and no skill in care and 
feeding will give from poor breeds the best of animals. Special 
excellences are the accumulated improvements of several genera 
tions. 
It is often claimed that if the care of man be withdrawn the — 
improved breed will retrace the steps of its ancestry and revert to 4 
its original characteristics. “This theory has been made a dogma 
and the basis of deductions regarding the permanence of © 
types and the fleeting nature of acquired characters. The dogma 
finds a place in scientific literature in papers read before learned 
societies, and from these sources the notion spreads through our p 
Li maar literature. It has weight with a class of farmers who {% 


* Read at the Hartford Meeting of the Amer. Assoc. Ady, Science. 


ER eee eee PR OS Se eee ee ee Be ey re 


F + 
ab, 
is 
; 


f 


ZOOLOGY. -ROO 


not wish to expend money and care on their live stock —to have 
the best and care for it in the best manner. They suppose that 
the moment their care is withdrawn, the objects of it will begin 
to “revert” to original inferiority. This wide-spread belief greatly 
impedes the general improvement of live stock. 

Instances of this alleged “reversion” were brought forward at 
the last annual meeting of this Association, and are printed 
among the papers then delivered. About a month later there was 


a meeting held in a neighboring state. Stock breeders came from 


England, from California, from even the very state where they had 
Just been told that ‘“‘shorthorns” were prone to return to their 


Original state. The meeting was for the sale of improved animals, 


and in 30 minutes the sale of shorthorns amounted to $250,000, 
and there also, within a very short time, 109 head of cattle were 
sold for $382,000. For 5 cows—the Duchess strain—$158,000 
were paid—all showing the faith of the purchasers in the per- 
manence of the improved stock. 

‘For some years Prof. Brewer has been investigating this subject 
and seeking for proof of the alleged tendency to reversion. The 
Inquiry only covered “‘ thoroughbreds,” and not “grades” nor ‘‘mon- 
grels.” To carefully worded inquiries in writing, following upon 
every report of such ‘‘reversion,” Prof. Brewer hasweceived very 
numerous replies, and they are unanimously in the negative. This 
is certainly remarkable, following upon the confident assertions that 
animals so frequently exhibited the alleged tendency. The in- 
quiries were pushed in the specific localities where the reversion 
Was said to have occurred; the questions have been put to a large 


_ lumber of stock-breeders, and finally have been made by means 


of a printed circular. But the result was always the same, except 
that a smile of incredulity extended over the faces of some stock 
breeders when such inquiries were put to them, and they feared 
they were to be made the victims of a “sell.” No instances of the 
alleged “ reversion” having been authenticated in Prof. Brewer’s 
experience, he asks the Association to aid in exposing and refut- 


ing the pernicious notion. 


_ Deep Sea Exrrorations.—In a letter written by Professor 


Wyville Thompson, in charge of the “ Challenger” Expedition, 


we have some account of the dredgings at great depths in the 
Antarctic Ocean. 


After leaving the Cape of Good Hope, several 


756 ZOOLOGY. 


dredgings were taken a little to the southward, at depths from 100 
to 150 fathoms. Animal life was very abundant, and it was found 
that the general character of the fauna was very similar to that of 
the North Atlantic — many of the species even being identical 
with those on the coasts of Great Britain and Norway. Between 
Prinee Edward’s Island and the Crozets they trawled in 1,375 and 
1600 fathoms, and many new forms, including two stalked crin- 
oids and some deep-sea sponges and sea-urchins, occurred. Off 


Pipe Sieg etme te 
it 


Kerguelen Island, a fine sponge (Rossella) — probably, the Ros- 
sella antarctica — originally dredged by Sir James C. Ross, near 
the ice-barrier, was obtained. At their most southerly station — 
lat. 65° 42’ south, long. 79° 49’ east — the trawl brought up from 
a depth of 1,675 fathoms a considerable number of sponges and 
other deep-sea forms. Dredgings with similar results were made 
in 1,800 and 1,900 fathoms. Again at a depth of 2,600 fathoms 
Holothurians were abundant, with several star-fishes and Actiniæ 
and an “elegant little Brachiopod.” By using the towing net 
from the surface as deep down as 150 fathoms, Mr: Murray, one 
of the party, infers “that the’ bulk of the material of the bottom 
in deep water is in all cases derived from the surface.” 


Sates, 


Tue CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER.—In the account of the chest- - 
nut-sided warbler (Dendroica Pensylvanica) in vol. I of “North — 
American Birds,” Dr. Brewer states that ‘‘it is not known to breed 
farther south than Massachusetts.” On May 19, 1871, I shot 
female of this bird off a nest of four eggs, at White Sulphur 
Springs, West Virginia. This locality is about 2000 feet above © 
the sea and somewhat below lat. 38. The nest was eighteen 
inches above ground in a small thorn bush in a swampy thicke 
With the exception of being slightly smaller, and having the 
chestnut side streak more faintly developed this bird does not 
appreciably differ from specimens I have from Canada. — ARTHUE 
C. Srarx, Hillstead, Torquay, England, Oct. 29, 1874. | 

ublished 


EMBRYOLOGY OF THE Bracniopops.—Kowalevsky has pud™® pe 
a fully illustrated paper on this subject in the ‘* Memoires” of th 
Academy of Science at St. Petersburg. It gives an account x 
the embryology of Argiope and other genera, and is fully com ae 
orative of the studies of Prof. Morse and his opinion that ©" 
Brachiopods are closely allied to the Cheetopod worms. A number 
of interesting sections of the embryo are figured. At one 


+ 


PIROT EE 


ZOOLOGY. 757 


the larva would easily be mistaken for that of a worm. On an- 
other occasion he writes that “it was while fresh from the impres- 
sion produced on me by the views of the American scientist that 
I write the last portion of my general review, although I had pre- 
viously arrived myself to the conclusion, based upon the homolo- 
gies of the muscles and setæ, that the Brachiopods are nearly 
allied to the Chætopod Annelides.” 


MeraĮmorrnoses or THE Harr Worm.—M. Villot is publishing à 
monograph of the Hair Worms in the “Archives de Zoologie Ex- 
perimentale.” He has found the larvæ encysted in the larvæ of 
Chironomus, and afterwards in the mucous lining of the intestines 
of fishes, in September. Thus their metamorphoses have been, in 
conjunction with the previous labors of Grube, Leidy, and Meiss- 
ner, cleared up. The larve are tadpole-shaped. The habits of 
Gordius seem quite distinct from Mermis, found living in insects. 


$ A New Orper or Hyprozoa.—Prof. Allman publishes in 
Nature” a brief account of his discovery of a French hydroid 
embedded in a sponge, which he describes under the name of 
Stephanoscyphus mirabilis, and regards as the type of a new order 
termed Thecomeduse. He regards this animal as a compound 
hydrozoon, ‘whose zooids are included in cup-like receptacles 
resembling the hydrothece of the calyptoblastic hydroids; but 
these zooids, instead of being constructed like the hydranths of 
a hydroid are formed on the plan of a medusa. It has plainly 
very decided affinities with the Hydroida, but it is nevertheless re- 
moved from these by a distance at least as great as that which 
Separates from them the Siphonophora.” 


Birps or Kansas.—Since the publication of the second edition 
of my catalogue of the birds of Kansas (Oct., 1872), six addi- 
ional species have been observed; viz: Colaptes Mexicanus, 
Helmitherus vermivorus, Dendreca striata, D. maculosa, Larus 
Delawarensis and Podiceps auritus var. Californicus.—F. H. Syow. 


Ostrich Breepinc.—The success which has attended the ostrich- 


~ breeding farms in South Africa has induced some French gentle- 
z Men to endeavor to imitate the system in Algeria, and African 
___ birds have also been sent to La Plata and other countries in South 
_ America, where it is hoped they may take the place of the native 


birds, which are inferior in quality to the African ostrich. Gener- 
sily speaking, the system on which ostrich farms are conducted is 


* 


with her only six months. Since then she has been entirely 


- fectly normal substitute for its natural nurse. — F. H. W 


758 ZOOLOGY. 


as follows :—The birds kept for breeding purposes, about three 
years old, are placed in separate paddocks, in pairs, and their — 
eggs are either hatched in the natural way or placed in incubators ae 
prepared for the purpose. By this means a larger proportion of 
eggs is hatched. The young birds are fed on grass, lucern, 
other vegetable matters, and are sheltered at night. Each pair of 
birds will produce about twenty chickens, which may be plucked 
when they are about eighteen months old, before which time the — 
feathers are not of much value. The price of good ostrich feathers, Í 
wholesale, is about 40 /. per pound weight. If the birds are well 
kept, and have plenty of exercise and food, their feathers are of 
good quality ; but the plumage of wild birds is considered superior 
to that of inferior tame ones. The value of each year’s plucking 
from the young birds is about 7 Z., and of the birds themselves 
six months old is 30 Z. to 357. The breeding birds are worth 
125 1. per pair.— Nature. 


Ne STL Stu ior ae ae eS ei a the Sec eed 


Case or a Doe Nourse a Kirren.— Mr. John Downing, 
residing at No. 27 Morgan Street, has a female dog of some breed — 
of setter, which has not been pregnant for upwards of three — 
years. At her last pregnancy she gave birth to six pups, of 
which one only was allowed to survive; this one was continued 


alone, and spends her days in a close yard and her nights in 
a house. 

She has always been averse to the society of cats, repelling all 
their advances towards friendship. About two months ago the ‘ 
family procured a very small kitten, and the dog was soon ob- 
served to keep it near her, and rather tagged it around. About 
four weeks ago the dog was observed to be nursing the kitten, and 
has steadily given it milk ever since. The four posterior mamm 
are a little tumefied, but the forward ones are as flat as in an 
unimpregnated puppy. Upon gentle pressure, an abundant fi 1 
of milk readily shows itself, and what seems remarkable, from all 
the teats alike. The kitten thrives vigorously, which seems 
demonstrate that the milk is a normal secretion. As soon as 
kitten approaches the dog, she lies down and offers herself to 
kitten as to her own offspring, and the kitten purrs itself to sleep 
while nursing, apparently regarding its adopted mother as ek 


70 Mulberry St., Hartford, Oct. 26, 1874. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 

Tue EARTHWORKS OF “ Fort Axcent.” —On the 16th of June, 
1869, I found myself in the neighborhood of the famous ‘Fort 
Ancient,” on the little Miami River, some four miles above the 
town of Morrow in Warren County, Ohio; and as a day’s leisure 
was left me I determined to visit these interesting remains of the 
prehistoric tribes of America. The following notes additional to 
those made by previous visitors may be of interest. With a 
tracing in my hand of the survey of Dr. Locke, as given in the 
first volume of the Smithsonian Contributions, I ascended the road 
leading eastward from the railroad station and entered the fortifi- 
cations at a point which is said to have been an original outlet, 
but which has been so enlarged for the use of the present roadway 
that its original facing is now gone. The excavation thus made 
has revealed a section which shows that the earthwork was orig- 
inally begun by building an exterior retaining wall, two to four 
feet high, of flat stones. 

The outer parapet of the fort was now followed by me with 
great faithfulness entirely around the enclosure. Descent was 
made into each and every ravine, and the whole examined as care- 
fully as was possible for one person to do in about five hours ; it 
will be remembered that twelve persons were occupied two days 
in making the survey published by Dr. Locke. 

The principal new features that I noted may be summed up as 
follows : 

1. The retaining wall above mentioned. 

2. Certain outlets, twelve in number, are not for drainage 
purposes. On the contrary, they invariably have on the inside a 
raised pathway crossing the interior ditches and connecting the 


outlet with the interior of the fort, and on the other hand they 


open exteriorly not into a ravine, but upon the crests of ridges 
dividing two ravines. 

3. The breaks in the continuity of the parapet may therefore 
be divided into two classes. First, the just mentioned actual 
gateways opening out upon crests of ridges, and second, sluices 
for drainage— whence many of the small streams take their rise. 
~ The engraving given by Dr. Locke, therefore needs correction 

_ in these particulars. (769) 


a 


760 ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Of the seventy breaks in the parapet not more than twenty were 
used as gateways. 

4. The gateways are distinguished by having their floors ele- 
vated above the natural surface of the ground both outside and 
inside of the parapet ; they were also probably all faced and paved 

' with stone, as remains of these stone facings are often seen, and 
the facing and paving of one of the gateways are still almost 
perfectly preserved. : 

- At one point there are plain traces of a stone pathway 
(probably originally stone steps) leading for a long distance from 
a gateway down the crest of the ridge towards the brook that 
empties ‘into the little Miami. 

6. The ravines of the western side of the northern half of - 
fortification had been so filled with brush that it was impossible 

or me to examine them as thoroughly as was desirable, or to visit 
the well near by. 

7T. The entire interior of the northern half of the fort is now 
under cultivation, and the plough has revealed two large piles of 
stones at one spot. 

8. There are but two instances of recent gullies cut through 
the embankments, and the ravines are now in very nearly the same 
condition as when the work was built. Only in four places are 
the original ravines perceptibly deeper than when the work was 
deserted. : 

9. Many holes have been dug by treasure-seekers, especially by 
a person from Lebanon, who is continually resorting hither with 4 

hazel rod in his hand. aa 

10. Two mounds are to be found in the woods on the south and 
east of the fortification as reported to me by the farmer living x 
the neighboring house on the Chillicothe road, but I had no 
time to hunt for them. : 

11. An oak tree on the northern face of the embankment Men 
recently cut down having five hundred rings counted by Hon. Æ. 
D. Mansfield, in 1855. | 

12. No stone implements were found nor any traces of pe 

13. The general impression that one must receive from a 
study of this remarkable earthwork is that it was once the defence 
of a walled town,—that it was not a hasty construction, a goe : 
abandoned, but was occupied for a long period. The conis 

is so well guarded at both its ends, as well as its sides, that it woul? 


MICROSCOPY. 761 


seem as though the inhabitants had provided for a retreat in case 
of the capture of either half of the town. The southern half is 
far better defended, naturally, by ravines and steep inclines, and 
artificially by its double walls, so that this may well have been the 
first home of the people who, afterwards, extended the limits of 
their walled town northwards. The weakest portion of the fortress 


- is on its northeastern side where the artificial embankments are 


unusually high and steep, and where the main gateway opens out 
upon a broad level field on which is erected the mysterious enclos- 
ure whose outlines are given by Locke. The mound at the farther 
end of this enclosure I should say might well have served as a 
watch-tower either for the besieged or the besiegers,—its parallel 
walls affording means of escape and of defence. It is not clear to 
me but that the forest may have been allowed to stand both within 
and without the fort, even during its occupation, the trees being 
indeed an advantage both as protection against sun and wind, and 
as affording great help in actual combat.—CLEVELAND ABBE. 


[Being unable to reproduce Mr. Abbe’s drawings we have omitted his letters of 
reference.—ED 


MICROSCOPY. 

DISTRIBUTION oF THE Ru1zorops.—At a meeting of the Academy 
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia Prof. Leidy remarked that 
while it was exceptional to find the same species of the higher 
sub-kingdoms in-the different parts of the world, it appeared to 
be the rule that most species of Protozoa were found everywhere 
under the same conditions. A large number of our fresh-water 
forms he had recognized as the same as those described by Euro- 
pean authors. A less number of species are probably peculiar 
to every region. Among our fresh-water izopods he had 
served not only the genera Ameba, Arcella, Diffugia, Euglypha, 
Trinema, Lagynis, Actinophrys, etc., but also most of the species 
of these as indicated by European naturalists. It is an interesting 
question whether our fresh-water Protozoa have reached us from 


‘the same sources as those of Europe and other remote countries. 


If derived from the same sources they were probably infused in 
the waters of the different continents at an early age when the 
latter were not separated by ocean barriers. If thus early infused 
we have a remarkable instance of a multitude of specific forms 
retaining their identity through a long period of time. Sucha 
view might appear to oppose the doctrine of evolution, but not 


- 762 NOTES. 


justly so, for the simplest forms would be the slowest or least 
likely to vary, while the most complex, from their extended re- 
lationships, would be most liable to variation. Perhaps, however, 
the simplest forms of life, of the same species, may have origi- 
nated independently of one another, not only in different places, 
but also at different times, and may yet continue to do so. While 
the highest forms of life may have been slowly evolved from the 
simplest forms of the remotest age, equally simple forms may 
have started into existence at all times down to the present 
period. From the later original forms new ones may have been 
evolved to speed towards the same goal as those which preceded 
them. : 


NOTES. 


In an article in the “ North American Review” entitled “ Exact 
Science in America,” Mr. Simon Newcomb concludes that “we 
are a generation behind the age in nearly every branch of exact 
science.” He attributes this to the want of effective organization 
and incentive rather than to our lack of zeal in developing the 
material resources of the country. This statement also applies in 
a measure to biological science. How far the state and national 
geological and biological surveys have served, instead of any more 
direct and effective means of organizing scientific efforts, would be 
an interesting inquiry. As it is, the national and several state 
geological surveys have been almost the only means of educating 
students in science, of bringing to a focus the labors of scattered — 
‘scientists, and of placing before the people the results of the ex- 
aminations with more or less care of the geology and natural pro- 
ductions of our states and territories. Look, for example, at the 
Geological Survey of the state of New York. By the wisdom and 
liberality of the legislature of that state, a series of volumes on 
the geology, agriculture, paleontology, zoology and botany of that 
commonwealth have been issued, which have altogether immensely 
advanced these sciences in this country and assured Europeam 
naturalists that in native ability and power of observation and of 4 
producing useful results from abstruse knowledge the American 18 
not behind his trans-Atlantic brother in science. That survey 
also called in the aid of some eminent European naturalists, €57 
tablished a large museum, one of the finest in the world, and : 
body of assistants who have formed a coterie or school of observ- 
_ ers, which have done and are doing much to elevate the stam 


NOTES. 763 


of pure science in our country.: The Coast Survey in like manner, 
and the survey of the Territories, have built up centres of science 
and gathered at Washington a number of scientists, which have 
made that city second to no other scientific centre in the United 
States, and developed the energies and collected the results from 
observers scattered over the country. The direct influence of sur- 
veys, geodetic, geographical, and geological, in developing our 
science is most apparent. Certainly our colleges and universities 
thus far have not proved to be centres for the advancement of 
science ; they tend to act rather as conservators of knowledge. 
Exception should of course be made for Harvard and Yale. 

It is not to be overlooked that some of the most talented obser- 
vers are not connected with any college or survey, and science has 
been largely indebted to isolated students for her most valuable dis- 
coveries. But it is to state and government surveys that America 
is on the whole most indebted for her present scientific position ; 
in other words to grants of money and incentives to work from 
people. It is for this reason that the proposal on the part of a 
number of the scientific citizens of the state of Massachusetts, 
who lately had a hearing before the State Committee on Edu- 
cation in regard to a re-survey of the topography, geology and 
biology of the state, will we hope, meet with favorable action on 
the part of the legislature this winter. By the annual appropria- 
tion of $20,000 for a period of fifteen years, a careful, elaborate 
and most useful survey of that small state can be made. No sur- 
vey has been made for nearly forty years. The value of the brief 
and incomplete reports published by the state, about forty years 
since, 7. e. the botanical works of Mr. G. B. Emerson, Gould’s 
* Invertebrates of Massachusetts,” Storer’s “ Fishes of Massachu- 
‘setts, and Harris’ “ Treatise on the Injurious Insects of the State,” 
—the value of these, not to speak of the other excellent reports, 
as educational works, in making students of science, in assisting 
state teachers and in aiding farmers and gardeners in combating 
injurious insects, cannot be overestimated. . 

So valuable have these works been considered, that the state 

reprinted those of Drs. Gould and Harris at a cost of $20,000. 
Every motive of state pride and economy calls for a thorough and 
final survey of the state, with reports on all departments of | 
science, botanical and zoological as well as geological and topo- — 

hical. Several other states, as Pennsylvania, Kentucky, North 


764 : NOTES. 


Carolina and others, are making re-surveys. Such a survey, com- 
prehensive and thorough, embracing biology as well as physical 
geography and geology, can be done much cheaper than many 
may think. The work can be accomplished as in the past, largely 
by naturalists and students without pay. Many monographs on 
groups of animals and plants, private geological explorations and 
the coast survey triangulations already made can be worked in 
without cost. The final reports can be sold at cost, and thus 
repay the original outlay in printing them. Those of some states 
have already more than repaid the cost of publication. It is to 
be hoped that the biological side of the survey will be fully 
attended to. There is a pressing need among our agriculturists of 
a knowledge of our parasitic plants and injurious animals. 

The amount of produce annually raised in the United States is 
$2,500,000,000. It is estimated that we lose one-fifth of this 
amount, or $500,000,000, from the attacks of injurious plants and 
animals. Of this amount certainly one-tenth, or $50,000,000 
could be saved with a proper knowledge on the part of our agri- 
culturists of the forms and habits of the injurious species. In 
one year it is said that in the Eastern counties of Massachusetts 
_the farmers lost $250,000 worth of grass from the attacks of the 
army worm. In 1871, in Essex County alone, $10,000 worth of 
onions were destroyed by a minute insect; a loss that a slight 
knowledge might readily have prevented. We need state aid in 
affording the means of importing and raising certain parasitic 
insects which prey on the injurious forms. In a money point of 
view the natural history side of the proposed survey is fully as 
important as the geological or topographical. 

Moreover the biological department of the survey could be 
carried on at a slight expense compared with the topographical 
and geological; and the reports, if properly illustrated and com 
taining notes on the modes of living of injurious plants and cag 
mals, would, we doubt not, fully repay the original cost of printing- 


THE attempt to colonize the bay of San Francisco with lobsters 
seems to have met with success. Of a hundred large female lob- 
sters with eggs sent in June, 1873, from the eastern states, Seven 
survived, and were placed in the bay. Fifteen or twenty young 
were lately caught by a Chinese fisherman while casting his net 
for shrimp. i 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 765 


A RECORD of works on geology, mineralogy and paleontology, 
British and foreign, will be issued by the middle of 1875, to con- 
tain short abstracts or notices of papers, books and maps pub- 
lished in 1874. The first volume will contain from 200 to 300 
pages. Price 10s., 6d. Subscriptions should be sent to the Edi- 
tor of “Nature,” care of Macmillan & Co., New York. 


A Society of Natural Science has lately been organized in 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y., with the following officers, — President, C. 
Van Brunt; Vice President, W. G. Stevenson, M. D. ; Secretary, 
W. R. Gerard; Treasurer, C. F. Arnold. 


Dr: J. H. Stack, of New Jersey, well known as a naturalist and 
pisciculturist, died August 24. He wrote on Egyptian antiquities 
and the mammals. 


Francis WALKER, the entomologist, died Oct. 5. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


gr n maa. pp. 249-320. 8vo. 
hanges of Level besa pag ony By N. S. Shaler. Memoirs Boston Soc. Nat. 
Vol. ii. Part iii. apie Fg pov a 4to. 
Philosophical hg agg of Foe mover Society on 1872. Vol. 162. Part ii. pp. 24l- 
501 1873. Vol. Parts i: - ii. pp. 662. I Airrearane . 4to. 
Proceedin gs of ie my -1873 and 1574. Nos, 138-150, With cuts, 8v0. 
List tof Felt lows of the wat  Boctety for 1872 snd 1873. aat 32 and 32. 4to. 
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Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift. Berlin,1874. Tafell. Seite 1-8, 241-448. With illustration, oo 
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a As. apee of the ae Geological Society, 1874, Vol.ii. Part ili. With plates. pp. 
vO. 
Report of Progress for 1872. ee Gasolom Survey of Canada. Dawson Brothers, Publisher, 
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O, . ; 
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"on an añcieni che cuban Stone found in the Satpura Hills. By V. Ball. Mlustrated. pp. 3. 
T. e nh Gi satin see pedo irk No, Bay D 80. ggg <i 
. 0. A 
Me N el ae cpeription of ew Species, sy aa oe @ 


Remarks on North Noctuidx 
_ September, 1874. pp- 10, Svo. Ecoeived Nov. OS ise 


INDEX 


TO VOLUME EIGHT. 


Abutilon, ela i of, 223, 
Acanthom ne 7 ha 
Actino ophys 5 ob 
Acyttaria, 743. 
Adelops hea. larva of, 563. 
oxa moschatellina, 690. 
Bodin Spiik 1 
psoraleæ, 215. 
Æstivation of Plants, 705. 
ural ant, 51 3. 
burns amoenus, 334. 


key to 398, 479. 
All a, 392. 
Konoro  horostichotaes, 304. 
American — on 


t caterpillar, 272. 
Ameeba, 741 
Anbiitea Ot iy oo 
Anopthalm of, 562. 


sweet soented, 564, 
Apionide, 
Aplectrum hyemale » 807. 
Aplocerus montanus, 164. 
Aplopappus multicaulis, 213. 


Aquilegia. Zones, 211. 
Aramus 


gin 597. 
Architeuthis hs monachus, 167. 
ana, 21 


Arnica oleae. 213. 
Parryi, 213. 
Ascidia callosa, 148. 
rpad Parryi, 212. 
Astragalus Grayi, 212, 


idx, 391. 
PERPER viscosa, 517. 


Baird’s ae 241. 
Bathybiu 

ver, parasite of 

of the 1 beaver, 427. 


97. 
notes and wt of, 
Black-breasted Bcd eae ay 242. 

Blind crusta a, 368. 


Bombu 


Aira eogra hy of, 565. 
fi a ert st mammals, 503. 


Bre 
evaporite, 79. 
Boy n-headed gg 86. 


Byrsopi ide, 395. 


Calie 465. 
Canker w eat 272. 
Cannibalism in America, 403. 
Ca ree nroa 214. 
8, preservation of, = 


ventrony eee te a 
Cermatia 


1, 
Chalcis mytilaspidis > 280. 
Gumon swift, 367. 


Circulation, h: siology of, 684 
Cirrhatulus Sand 4 

ymene 494. i 
Ce elenterates and Echinoderms, relation 
Calbaaass a 691. 
Colaptes aura 
Coleoptera, 308, 38 y 
rat ate tang S a 746. 

o 
Collurio Ludovicianus, 87. 
Colorado, flora of, 304. 
olpodelta. 735, 
Contopus borealis, 308. 
Core , 713. 
Corydalus cornutus, 533. 
Cossonide, 466. 
Cotton worm, 562 
Crab, megalops of, 495. 

ëa of, 4 
Crustacea, 438, 
i ao of colors in, 556. 
Cucullia Speyeri, 692. 
Cupuliferz, 422. 
Curculionide, 460. 
Cuttle-fishes, 167, 226. 
Cuyamaca Mountains, ¢ anion life of, 14- 
tany of, 90. 

Cyanura cristata, 87. 
Cynips - operator, 563. 
eh aoe æ, 436, 


Cy iei rp of New Jersey, 326. 


Daan Charles Robert, 473, 
Deep = aoia 431. 
tea n pA 369, 755. 
aAa Teg 


| Deer, antlers of, 348. 


INDEX. 


Deinameba mirabilis, 742. Isoetes opone 215. 
Deltocyathus Agassizii, 153. lii, 215. 
endræca occidentalis, 16. venue 214. 
Desmids, 181, 698. 
Diatoms, 309, 371, 568, 697, 701. Japyx solifugus, 50 
Dibothrium cordiceps, 78 hag irimh fie 1. 
os n, human skeleton from, 370. 
tera deridens, 692 Kansas, birds of, 757. 
Docophorus syrnii, 219, Kinglets in New J ersey, 864. 
0 
Draba ventosa, 212. Lagomys iggy e pa 
Dragon fl , 432. Lepidoptera, ante nn n, 519. 
Drosera filiformis , 396. Limnanthemun peunoeinn 250. 
longifolia, 55. Little chief hare, 
rotundifolia, 55. Lobster, 414, 764. 
Loggerhead shrike, 87. 
Eared grobė, 243. Loli ii, 17 
Echinus, 21 pallida, 168, 
3 ere sparrow, ms be 692. 
am marine, 632, 
Ee paras ah fo ‘ol Maple borer, 57, 123. 
oe fulgens 241. Membracis, 565. 
uryom ia melancholica, 687. Menopon picicola, 219, 
te Bar Microtome, 126, 
J ce ii. 
aos communis innow, 58. 
Ferns, 307. aie Mollusks, 116. 
Fish, eras e 2i c onera, 723, 
Fish’ new bars Monothalamia, 743. 
ode Moule, Ne auditory apparatas of, 578. 
mor nos of, 603, 661, 713. merican, 223, 
Florida. porn f- 4 ge, 3 transformations of, 691. 
ora E FA Mountain quai ‘ 
Fort Ancient, 759. ‘ Musca, 603, 661, 713 
= ssil vgs en tenis 133. 
ungi, 697. Myriopods 
M Myrmecocystus SE T E 366. 
Seoce, 131. iaee molefaciens, 513. 
ies, dimo: yxastrum, 
Gam (ioe CTN Myxine limosa, 149. 
Tamre oan idini ma, 89. 
Gentians, fertilization of, 180, 226. Nadata gibbosa, 691. 
on, 153. we forficatus, 88. 
“Gobiosoma molestum, 233. Nirmus buteonivorus, 219. 
Goniodes. fo cern 219. Noctuid moths, 421, 
erriamanus, 219. Notodonta, 
ohm died 53, 502, 511 Numenius ‘longirostris, 601. 
regarina, 736 
Gromia terricola, 742. Octopus Bairdii, 
socialis, 746, Olive-sided fyete r, 308, 
Ommastrephes illecebrosa, 172. 
Hamatozoa, 250. à Opostos a, 147. 
Hair worm, 757. 3 
Haliomma, 743. i erab tiela, ‘as, 
Haplogastra, 390. be 
Hawks, nesting of, 596. $ h Carelina, 6. 
_ Heliozoa, 743, Orthoe: ocarpus ena 214, 
srbarium cases, 471, Ostrich, 757. 
os ga pee, e : Otiorhynchidæ, 4m. 
ippasteria iana, 148. 
Hirundo lunttroas; 599" owe, 330." 
Honey-ants, 365. 
House sparrow, 556. Palzmon serratus, 
- Hyalonema longissimum, 147. Pamphagus aha 742. 
aac OTAD En MAMAS seu. i 
y elidon fissipes, 188. elomyxa palustris, 742, 745, 
Hydrozoa, new pone of, a. Penikese Island, flora of, 193. 
S Peru, civilization of, 687. 
Indian food, 247. Tenes — 214. 
: pottery, 245 a ant lice, 231. 
Infusoria, 498°” pE Plants, Alpine, 552. ; 
Insecta, 3 271, 369, 50 æstiyation of, = 
s of i oe vorous, 634. 
er in, 531. = contained in, 553. 
Tonidium, 690. Pl PRE cae area, 691. 
Iphiclides Ajax, 257. Platysamia Cecropia, 531. 
Isoetes Bolanderi, 214, Piectrophanes Maccownii, 602. 


IOS INDEX. 
Plotus anhinga, 89 Sno bal Sree eet 
Podiceps auritus, 243, Snowy è 
Podura scales, 376, 702. Solar ar phs ses 2. 
Polistes, 229, Spai wk, 266, 
Polycystina, 744. Sph ai ies 633. 
Polymorphic butt 7» 257. Sphyrapicus ie ame PORS 242, 
Polythalamia, 743, 746. Spider, gossamer, 592. 
de egy oa, 421, Spiders, 
Pota 0, 248. somes Breweri, 366. 
rota od a a pon 
Protis BOOKERA generation, 238. 
Protobaihybins, 731. Squ ns les 120. 
Protohippus, 126. Squids, 167. 
Protomonas, 731, 732. Stanleya tomentosa, 212. 
Protomyxa, 7382. Stapelia variegata, 687. 
Protozoa, 728. Stingless honey-bees, 553 
Pseudofilaria, 740 soe ee ge camara 178. 
Psychomorpha epimenis, 691. undew 
Pyrola elliptica, 710, 713. an ach hn 8 ‘puzzard, 2n, 596. 
Swallow-tailed kite, 88 
Radiolaria, 743, 746. 
Rainfall, A gad Telea Ag aea 243, 753. 
Raja ocel Termites, 
She peers of A saiia, T54. Ter rip damage 
ann “gh ER Territories, s geology of, 216, 
est 
poe Lin. 391. Tetrap fe, 743. 
Rhizopođa, 741, 761. Tissues for section, 19 
Rhynchitidæ, 392. : Townsendia condensata, 213. 
> Ribes Woltii, 358. ‘ , 212, 
: Robin, 203. aes 439. 
2 Rubus odoratus, 709, 711. Tringa prioras 
Ruddy duck, 433. Trochiliu m acericolum, 57. 
Rumex patientia, 305. Troglodyte: 
Tyrannus verticalis, 599. 
Salix evum, 202. 
pyrifolia, 202. Umbonia, 565. 
Saprolegniei, 374. 
ae A Penn a De. Vampyrella, 734. 
a TA æ, 686. ` Vaucheria, circulation of, 444, 
tc ee acens gaviolaris ebe. : 
Schizas MT Warbler, chconnkgidod, 756. 
okretna er “folia. 213. Water Turke 
Science, eee ples of, 628. | Western Warbler 
Scolytide, 46 ; Wyomi Ha Botany o ai 175, 211. 
cuenta’ = Whale-fishery, Americ 
Section cutter, 59. Wheeler’s Eipediion 4 
Seeds; Ahana kas of, 690. White necked raven, 429. 
Seiurus Ludovicianus, 238. i Wild cattle of Scotland, 135. 
Selachians, teething among, 129. oodlands, American, 687. 
Sex a on i 355. Worms, 427. 
f, 19. è range at tae of, 46. 
Siliva "alms, 696. ; segmental organs of, 51. 
Sitta pes i 
Skuuk, 437. Xanthoptera semicrocea, 685. 
Slide, EAD A siphon, 247. A 
: be wered Parnassia, 305. Yellow-shafted flicker, 88. 


cca filamentosa, 749.